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John Fiske’s CAvitings. 





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EXCURSIONS OF AN 
EVOLUTIONIST 


BY 


JOHN ‘FISKE 


Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten 
Geh nur im Endlichen nach allen Seiten 
GOETHE 


SIXTEENTH EDITION, 








BOSTON 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
New York : 11 East Seventeenth Street 
Che Witverside Pres, Cambridge 
1894 


Copyright, 1883, 
By JOHN FISKE. 


All rights reserved. 


The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company 


To 


REV. JOHN LANGDON DUDLEY. 


DEAR AND HONOURED FRIEND: 


Quarter of a century has passed since I used to listen 
with delight to your preaching and come to you for sym- 
pathy and counsel in my studies. In these later days, 
while we meet too seldom, my memory of that wise and 
cordial sympathy grows ever brighter and sweeter; and 
to-day, in writing upon my title-page the words of the 
great German seer, my thoughts naturally revert to you. 
For I know of no one who understands more thoroughly 
or feels more keenly how it is that if we would fain learn 
something of the Infinite, we must not sit idly repeating 
the formulas of other men and other days, but must gird 
up our loins anew, and diligently explore on every side 
that finite realm through which still shines the glory of 
an ever-present God for those that have eyes to see and 
earstohear. Pray accept this little book from one who is 

Ever gratefully yours, 


JOHN FISKE. 
CAMBRIDGE, October 23, 1883. 


CONTENTS. 





PAGE 
. EUROPE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF MAN : : a 
. Tue ARRIVAL OF MAN IN EUROPE . F ‘ «4 
. Our ARYAN FOREFATHERS . : ‘ : : 78 
. WHAT WE LEARN FROM OLD ARYAN WorpDs ,. . 109 
. WAS THERE A PRIMEVAL MOTHER-TONGUE ? e147 
. SociloLocgy AND HERO-WoRSsHIP : : a he 
. HEROES OF INDUSTRY . : : Q - 205 
. THE CAUSES OF PERSECUTION . : 8 : 211 
. THE ORIGINS OF PROTESTANTISM . : ; RPE 
. Toe True LESSON OF PROTESTANTISM . ‘ . 268 
. EVOLUTION AND RELIGION . * : , 2 294 
. THe MEANING OF INFANCY é : : , . 806 
. A UNIVERSE OF MIND-STUFF j : : epee 
. In Memoriam: CHARLES DARWIN . : - . 837 





EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST. 


-_——_—_——__+—-__——— 
I. 
EUROPE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF MAN. 


In looking over any modern historical narrative 
—such, for example, as Knight’s “ History of Eng- 
land ’” — one cannot fail to be struck by the dis- 
proportion between the amounts of space devoted 
respectively to ancient and to modern events. Of 
the eight bulky volumes of Knight, the first covers 
a period of 1452 years, from Ceesar’s invasion of 
Britain to the death of Edward III.; the second, 
bringing us down to the death of Henry VIIL., 
covers 170 years; the third takes us 95 years fur- 
ther, to the beginning of the Great Rebellion; 
while five volumes are required to do justice to 
the two centuries intervening between the over- 
throw of Strafford and the repeal of the corn-laws. 
This is due partly to the greater complexity of 
modern life, and partly to the increasing abun- 
dance of our sources of information. It is true, 


8 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


we have to go back a long way before we en- 
counter an absolute scarcity of information ; there 
was a great deal more literature in the Middle 
Ages than is commonly supposed, and it is pos- 
sible to describe many long past events with great 
minuteness and accuracy. Mr. Freeman devotes 
the greater part of a volume of 768 pages to the 
political and military history of England during 
the single year 1066. But the history during the 
spring of 1815, if treated with equal thoroughness, 
would fill a good many volumes as big as this; 
and this is owing largely to our increased wealth 
~J materials. When we go back far enough and 
encounter a positive dearth of material, we can 
devote but afew pages to the history of a century, 
as in the case of the earliest Teutonic invasions 
of Britain; or, as in the case of the long ages 
before Ceesar’s invasion, we can barely say that 
such and such races of men inhabited the island, 
and we can give little or no account of what they 
did. This is one reason why we find it so hard to 
form and preserve an accurate mental picture of 
the duration of past time. It requires a deliber- 
ate effort of the mind to realize, for example, that 
the interval between the proclamation of Con- 
stantine the Great by the Roman legions at York 
and the invasion of William the Conqueror was 


Hurope before the Arrwal of Man. 9 


exactly equal to the interval between the latter 
event and the accession of George IV., or the 
adoption of the Missouri Compromise. We may 
know that it is so, but.in order to make it seem so, 
most people will have to stop and think. 

The case is somewhat similar when we try to 
realize the relative duration of the successive geo- 
logical epochs in the history of the earth’s crust. . 
We are naturally inclined to overrate the relative 
duration of the later epochs. Familiar as we 
are with the established classification of periods 
as Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary, we fall natu- 
rally into a habit of regarding these three great 
groups of epochs as substantially equal in value, 
so that the beginning of the Tertiary period is 
apt to seem one third of the way back toward the 
first beginnings of fossil-bearing strata. Proba- 
bly im our every-day thinking the Tertiary period 
occupies more than a third of the space that is 
occupied by the whole recorded life history of the 
earth, — mainly for the reason that it is so much 
more completely filled for us with familiar and 
well-ascertained facts. This may be partly be- 
cause organic life has really been more complex 
and multiform since the beginning of the Tertiary 
period than it was in earlier ages ; but it is also, 
no doubt, because our sources of information are 


10 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


far more abundant. On the whole, the geologic 
record of the Tertiary period is much more com- 
pletely preserved than that of the two earlier 
periods ; we see more clearly into the details of 
life at that time, and consequently have a more 
vivid picture of it before us; and this more vivid 
picture, as is natural, usurps an undue place in 
our minds. 

The force of these remarks will be obvious 
when it is stated that, in point of fact, the begin- 
ning of the Tertiary period carries us back barely 
one twentieth part of the way toward the first 
beginnings of fossil-bearing strata. In the table 
that follows, I have tried to give something like 
a just idea of the relative lengths of geological 
epochs, in accordance with the views now gener- 
ally adopted by geologists. Let us first suppose 
the entire lapse of time since the oldest Lauren- 
tian strata began to be deposited, down to the 
present day, to be divided into ten equal periods, 
or zons, such as I have marked off on the table 
with dotted lines. Then the Laurentian epoch fills 
three of these great exons, to begin-with. Here 
we find (with the exception of the Canadian 
eozo0n, the organic nature of which has been dis- 
puted) only indirect traces of life, such as lime 
stone, which probably came from shells. But, 


Hurope before the Arrival of Man. 11 


remembering how soft and perishable are all the 
lowest organisms, and remembering how consid- 
erably these oldest rocks have been affected by 
volcanic heat, we need not be surprised at finding 
the records of life in them very scanty and ob- 
scure. Next, the Cambrian epoch extends into 
the sixth on, and then comes the Silurian, which 
takes us half-way through the seventh. Mollusks 
and crustaceans swarmed in the seas of the Cam- 
brian epoch, but there are as yet no traces of fish 
before the upper Silurian. That is to say, three 
fifths of the whole duration of geological time had 
elapsed before the lowest vertebrate forms had 
begun to leave plentiful traces of themselves in 
the rocks. The Devonian epoch, in which we 
find the first record of insects, carries us half-way 
through the eighth eon; and we are brought 
well on into the ninth by the Carboniferous age, 
in which appear the earliest air-breathing verte- 
brates in the shape of frog-like amphibians. The 
vegetation of this period consisted chiefly of ferns, 
club-mosses, and horse-tails with araucarian pines. 
Nearly nine tenths of the past life history of our 
globe accomplished, and as yet no birds or mam- 
mals, perhaps no true reptiles, nor any tree save 
the araucaria or the arborescent fern! With the 
Permian epoch we reach the end of the Primary 


12 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


period, and nearly complete our ninth on, leay- 
ing for the whole of the Secondary and Tertiary 
periods only a little more than one zon to be di- 
vided between them. The oldest mammals and 
reptiles yet found belong to the Trias, or earliest 
Secondary epoch; yet so many small mammalia, 
inferior in type to the marsupials, have been found 
by Professor Marsh far down in the Trias as to 
warrant the belief that mammals had appeared 
on the scene toward the close of the Permian 
age; and no doubt the same will prove true of 
reptiles. Some of the footsteps on the Triassic 
rocks of the Connecticut Valley are probably 
footsteps of great struthious birds ; but the oldest 
- bird actually known belongs to the upper Juras- 
sic strata. Throughout the Secondary period the 
real lords of the creation were the giant reptiles, 
stalking over the earth, splashing through the sea, 
and flying on swift bat-like wing overhead. Of 
these innumerable ‘dragons of the prime,” the 
iguanodon, from fifty to seventy feet in length, 
used to be supposed the largest; but Professor 
Marsh has lately discovered the atlantosaurus of 
Colorado, nearly one hundred feet in length and 
thirty feet in height,— the largest land animal as 
yet known. The mammals contemporary with 
these monsters seem to have been mostly small 


TERTIARY. 


10. 


SECONDARY. 


Oe eS he. eee 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 13 


Recent 

Pleistocene. 

Pliocene. Mammals dominant. 
Miocene. 

Eocene. 


Cretaceous. Reptiles dominant. 
Jurassic. 
Triassic. Earliest birds. 
Earliest mammals and reptiles. 


Permian. 
Earliest batrachians. 


wee ee eer eee reese rene eee reece e eee Fee eee ee eeseevrevesteseae 


eee eocreeeeeorosreeosn 


Earliest insects. 


Karliest fishes. 


Cambrian. 


see eereeesreeees eee 


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Eozoon ? 


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14 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


insect-eating marsupials; and the forests through 
which they roamed consisted mainly of palms, 
tree-ferns, and pines. In the Cretaceous epoch 
such deciduous trees as the oak and walnut had 
appeared on the scene, and the great reptiles had 
become less numerous. But it is not until we 
enter the Tertiary period, half-way through our 
tenth won of geological time, that the face of the 
earth, with deciduous trees and flowering herbs, 
and mammals dominant in the animal world, 
could have begun to assume anything even dis- 
tantly resembling the aspect under which we 
know it. Yet if we could be suddenly taken 
back, and permitted to inspect a landscape of the 
earliest Tertiary epoch, we should probably be far 
more forcibly struck with the differences than 
with the points of resemblance. 

In this succinct view I have supposed the whole 
of the life history of our planet to be arbitrarily 
divided into ten equal periods. What, it may be 
asked, 1s supposed to have been the actual du- 
ration of one of these eons? I am well aware 
that to such a question no definite answer can 
be given. The geologist deals only with relative, 
not with absolute, quantities of time: he can 
only say that the time has been long enough for 
a certain enormous amount of work to be per. 


Hurope before the Arrival of Man. 15 


formed, but he has nothing with which to meas- 
ure its duration in years. Nevertheless, while 
fully admitting all this, one may perhaps venture 
to give a provisional answer for a provisional pur- 
pose. For the present it will be enough to recall 
Sir William Thomson’s ingenious speculations as 
to the limits of the antiquity of life upon the 
earth. Reasoning from the sources of the sun’s 
heat, and from the length of time which it would 
take a body like the earth to cool so as to pro- 
duce the present increment of temperature as we 
go beneath the surface, Sir William Thomson 
concludes that the crust of the earth cannot pos- 
sibly have existed in the solid state for more than 
400,000,000 years, and in all probability has not 
been solidified and in fit condition for the sup- 
port of vegetable and animal life for more than 
100,000,000 or 200,000,000 years. This conclu- 
sion is largely speculative, including several data 
of which our knowledge is far from complete, and 
it is of course extremely indefinite. It makes a 
good deal of difference whether life has existed 
on the earth for one hundred million years or 
for two hundred millions, since one period is just 
twice as long as the other. Still, in spite of 
this indefiniteness, there is a growing disposition 
among geologists to accept Sir William Thom- 


16 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


son’s estimate, as showing at least the order of 
magnitudes with which the geological chronol- 
oger must deal. That is to#ay, while it may not 
be clear whether life has existed for one or for 
two hundred millions of years, it is not at all 
probable that it has existed for a thousand mill- 
ions or for any greater period. Even this amount 
of limitation is of some value as giving definite 
shape to our ideas, and as reminding us that ge- 
ologists who have habitually reasoned as if there 
were an infinite fund of past time at their dis- 
posal have probably been in error. Provided we 
do not forget that Sir William Thomson’s con- 
clusion contains more or less that is hypothet- 
ical, it is well enough to adopt it provisionally ; 
and I shall do so here. Of the ten sons, then, 
into which I have supposed geological time to be 
divided, we will suppose that each is about ten 
million years in duration; bearing in mind that, 
while it is highly improbable that the lapse of 
time has been very much less than this, it may 
not improbably have been considerably greater. 
According to this, the minimum antiquity for the 
beginning of the Eocene period would be about 
five million years. 

If these periods seem short in comparison with 
the enormous quantity of work that has been done, 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. Le 


both in the tearing down and rebuilding of the 
earth’s crust and in the modification of the forms 
of animals and vegetables, it is no doubt largely 
due —as both Mr. Darwin and Mr. Croll have 
reminded us—to the fact that it is almost im- 
possible for us to frame an adequate conception of 
what is meant by a million years. We are wont 
to use these great arithmetical figures glibly, and 
without comprehending their import. Mr. Croll 
has done something to help us in this matter. 
“Here is one way,” he says, “of conveying to 
the mind some idea of what a million of years 
really is. Take a narrow strip of paper, an inch 
broad or more, and 83 feet 4 inches in length, and 
stretch it along the wall of a large hall, or round 
the walls of an apartment somewhat over 20 feet 
square. Recall to memory the days of your boy- 
hood, so as to get some adequate conception of 
what a period of a hundred years is. Then mark 
off from one of the ends of the strip yy of an 
inch. The 7> of the inch will then represent 
one hundred years, and the entire length of the 
strip a million of years. It is well worth making 
the experiment, just in order to feel the striking 
impression that it produces on the mind.” Mr. 
Croll further reminds us that if we could see side 


by side a million of years as represented in figures 
2 


18 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and a million of years as represented in geological 
work, our respect for a unit with six ciphers after 
it would be notably increased. ‘* Could we stand 
upon the edge of a gorge a mile and a half in 
depth, that had been cut out of the solid rock by 
a tiny stream, scarcely visible at the bottom of 
this fearful abyss, and were we informed that this 
little streamlet was able to wear off annually only 
jy of an inch from its rocky bed, what would our 
conceptions be of the prodigious length of time 
that this stream must have taken to excavate the 
gorge? We should certainly feel startled when, 
on making the necessary calculations, we found 
that the stream had performed this enormous 
amount of work in something less than a million 
of years.” ! 

Now all the fossil-bearing rocks on the globe 
have been formed from the sediment brought 
down by rivers to the sea, and this sediment has 
been worn off from the hills and valleys and 
plains of ancient continents. In recent years it 
has been attempted to calculate the amounts of 
sediment worn off by various great rivers from 
the surface of the regions drained by them; and 
the results are very interesting and instructive. 
The Mississippi, for example, draining a country 


1 Croll, Climate and Time, page 327. 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 19 


with scanty rainfall, and having its sources in the 
Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, where 
there are no glaciers, performs its work of denuda- 
tion slowly. The Mississippi wears off from the 
whole immense area drained by it about one foot 
in 6,000 years. While the Po, on the other 
hand, having its sources in the glaciers of the 
Alps, works with great rapidity, and lowers the 
area drained by it at the rate of one foot in 729 
years. The mean rate of denudation over the 
globe seems to be not far from one foot in 3,000 
years. Now at this rate, and from the action of 
rivers alone, it would take only two million years 
to wear the whole existing continent of Europe, 
with all its huge mountain masses, down to the 
sea-level, while North America, in similar wise, 
would be washed away in less than three millions. 

But while the raindrops, rushing in rivers to 
the sea, are thus with tireless industry working 
to obliterate existing continents, their efforts are 
counteracted, here and there, and with more or 
less success, by slow upward thrusts or pulsations 
from the earth’s interior, which gradually raise 
the floors of continents. The general result of 
the struggle has been that, ever since the earliest 
geological periods, the surfaces of the great con- 
tinents now existing have been subject to irregular 


20 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


oscillations ; now partially or almost entirely dis- 
appearing beneath the sea, now recovering ground 
as archipelagoes, or rising high and dry to great 
elevations, as in the case of Africa. The oscilla- 
tions have not ordinarily exceeded from 6,000 to 
10,000 feet in vertical extent. There is no reason 
for supposing that the general relative positions 
of the great continents and great oceans have 
altered at all since the beginning of the Lauren- 
tian period. Since life began on the earth there 
is no reason for supposing that the bottoms of the 
stupendous abysses which hold the waters of the 
Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian oceans have 
ever been raised up so as to become dry land. 
Once geologists thought otherwise, and land was 
turned into sea and sea into land, by facile the- 
orizers, as often as it was supposed to be neces- 
sary to account for the distribution of certain liz- 
ards or squirrels, or for changes in climate, such 
as have left marks behind in many parts of the 
earth. The greatest physical geologists now liv- 
ing, however, —such as Mr. Croll and the brothers 
Geikie, — are convinced that there has been no 
considerable change in the positions of the great 
oceans from the very beginning; and this view is 
ably sustained by Mr. Wallace — who is probably 
the highest living authority on the distribution of 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 21 


plants and animals — in his profound and fascinat- 
ing treatise on “ Island Life,” lately published. 
Though the general relative positions of deep 
sea and continent have not altered, however, there 
have been frequent and striking changes in the 
superficial contour of land and sea. Every con- 
tinent has been several times wholly or in part 
submerged, while shallow portions of what is now 
sea-bottom have been thrust up high and dry; and 
in this way the climate and the mutual relations 
of floras and faunas have been variously and vast- 
ly affected. Thus, during the Silurian period, the 
dry land of Europe lay mostly in the north, over 
Finland, Scandinavia, and the German Ocean, 
covering also the British Islands, and stretching 
more than two hundred miles out into the Atlan- 
tic. ‘The central and southern parts of Europe 
were then covered by a shallow sea, with islands 
on the sites of Bavaria and Bohemia. The dura- 
tion of this state of things may be dimly imag- 
_ ined when we consider the enormous quantity of 
sediment worn off from this northern continent, 
and now constituting the Silurian rocks of Europe. 
If all this sediment were to be arranged in a lon- 
gitudinal pile, according to Professor Archibald 
Geikie, it would make a mountain ridge 1,800 
miles long, 83 miles wide, and somewhat higher 


22 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


than Mont Blane. At the close of this long period 
ridges of land had begun to appear on the sites of 
Spain and Switzerland. By the Carboniferous 
period the central parts of Europe had risen so as 
to form an archipelago of low islands, surrounded 
by lagoons and salt marshes, covered with dense. 
jungles of ferns and club-mosses. On the islets 
grew thick forests of pine, and as repeated epochs 
of submergence brought all this teeming vegeta- 
tion under water, it became covered with detritus 
of mud and sand from the northern highlands, 
and in this way was preserved to form the coal- 
beds of Europe. By the Triassic period we find 
the general elevation of Europe increased, so that 
instead of an archipelago lying amid lagoons we 
have a continent thickly dotted over with salt 
lakes ; but in the next or Jurassic period the 
whole centre of the continent was laid under 
water again. The extent and shapé of the Euro- 
pean sea of the Cretaceous period are indicated 
by the extent of the chalk which was formed on 
its floor, and of which Professor Huxley has given 
such a graphic account in his lecture ‘On a Piece 
of Chalk.”1 The greater part of Europe might 
then have been called a ‘“* Mediterranean Sea,” 
extending from England far into central Asia 


1 Huxley, Lay Sermons, pp. 192-222. 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 23 


The western highlands of Scotland remained 
above water, but Bohemia, Switzerland, Spain, 
and the Caucasus seem to have been submerged, 
or reduced to islands. Still further submergence 
occurred during the Eovene period, and this in 
turn was followed by a long series of elevations, 
resulting in something like the configuration of 
Europe as we know it. Late in the Eocene period 
the Pyrenees, Apennines, Alps, Carpathians, and 
Caucasus had risen to their present or even to 
higher altitudes. While an inland sea flowed 
over the Netherlands and Normandy, the rest of 
Gaul was dry land, and at its northwestern ex- 
tremity was joined to Britain. The British Isl- 
ands, in turn, were joined to each other and to 
Scandinavia and Spitzbergen, as also to Iceland 
and Greenland. If Columbus had lived in those 
days, he could thus have walked on solid land all 
the way from Spain to the New World. 

Two immediate consequences of this great up- 
raising of land made the Eocene period an era of 
singular interest in the history of the European 
continent. The first was the invasion of Europe 
by placental mammals, which speedily supplanted 
the lower forms that had preceded them. The 
second was the immigration of deciduous trees 
from the polar regions. Before the Cretaceous 


24 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


period no such trees had been known in any 
part of the earth, and it is the opinion of Count 
Saporta that the habit of dropping the leaves 
was evolved in adaptation to the extreme differ- 
ences between summer and winter temperatures 
which characterized the polar regions. However 
that may be, it is certain that during the Eocene 
and Miocene periods deciduous trees and shrubs 
advanced from Greenland and Spitzbergen into 
Europe, and rapidly covered the face of the 
country, evolving gradually a great diversity of 
forms. By the middle Eocene, along with cy- 
presses, pines and yews, fan-palms and pandanus 
and cactus of giant size, the oak and the elm, the 
maple, willow, beech, and chestnut, as well as the 
gum and bread-fruit trees, flourished in Britain. 
The climate of western and central Europe was 
tropical, as is shown both by the abundance of 
palms and by the presence of crocodiles and 
alligators in large numbers, while the mollusks 
were such as are now found only in tropical 
waters. 

But the most interesting feature of Eocene 
Europe was the peculiar character of its mamma- 
lian fauna. At first we find marsupials, and car- 
nivora with marsupial affinities, showing that 
the order of carnivora was then only beginning to 


Hurope before the Arrival of Man. 25 


be evolved. Afterward came such creatures as 
the anchitheriwm, the ancestor of the horse, in 
general aspect somewhere between a Shetland 
pony and a pig, and with three separate hoofs on 
each foot. ‘There were also the anoplotheria, or 
common ancestral forms of antelopes and deer, as 
yet without horns or antlers. The highest order 
of mammals, the Primates, — including man, ape, 
and lemur, — was then represented by the adapis 
of the Paris basin, the necrolemur of southern 
France, and the ceenopithecus of Switzerland. 
Now none of these Eocene primates answered to 
any living genus of lemur, though the lemurs are 
the least specialized of primates now existing ; 
but all these Eocene primates showed signs of 
relationship, in one way or another, to the hoofed 
quadrupeds living at that time, which, as we 
must not forget, were only on the way toward 
becoming hoofed quadrupeds such as we know. 
Cousinship, however remote, between such ex- 
tremely specialized creatures as the horse and his 
rider seems odd to think of; yet the lemuroids 
of the Eocene furnish the link. And it is inter- 
esting to remember that, owing to the closeness 
of relationship, the lemuroid adapis was actually 
mistaken by Cuvier for an anoplotherium, or 
primitive antelope-deer. Of all anatomical con- 


26 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


trasts, what can be greater than the contrast be- 
tween a solid hoof and the flexible five-fingered 
hand of a Rubinstein? Yet the Eocene great- 
uncle of our modern pianists could be mistaken 
for his contemporary great-uncle or great grand- 
father of our hoofed quadrupeds! And this in- 
stance is but one fair sample out of many of the 
changes which the last five or six million years 
have wrought. Speaking generally, it may be 
said that in the Eocene age there were carniv- 
ora, and there were ungulata, and there were 
primates; but these orders were not so clearly 
distinguished from each other as they are to-day, 
and they were not so clearly distinguished from 
other orders, such as the rodents and insectivora, 
while in many cases they had not ceased to bear 
the marks of their marsupial ancestry. Or, to 
put the case in another way, in the Eocene period 
you have an instance of hoofed quadruped, but 
you find no instance of any such special form 
as horse or deer or camel; you find carnivora, 
but you do not find a clear instance of felis or 
canis or ursus, —not even of hyena, an earlier 
type than either of the others; and you find 
primates, but among these there is nothing yet so 
clearly distinguished as a monkey. In short, the 
present species or genera of mammals had not 


EHurope before the Arrival of Man. 27 


come into existence in the Eocene period, but only 
the present orders and some of the present fam- 
dies ; and even the orders were not clearly dis- 
tinct from one another, as they are at present ; 
but they were closely interlocked, very much as 
species are at present. In other words, the whole 
class of mammals in the Eocene age was far less 
highly specialized than it is at the present time. 
From these premises Mr. Boyd Dawkins ar- 
gues, with convincing force, that man could not 
possibly have existed in Europe, and probably 
nowhere on the earth, during the Eocene period. 
Ata time when the order of ungulates had not 
clearly dev_soped the distinction between camels 
and pigs and horses, and when the order of pri- 
mates was only just beginning to be distinguished 
from other orders, so that Cuvier could even mis- 
take a primate for an ungulate, — at such a time 
was it at all likely that man, the most highly spe- 
cialized of all primates, or of all animals, could 
have existed ? Obviously, he could not have ex- 
isted at such atime. The supposition is absurd 
on the face of it. As Mr. Boyd Dawkins says, 
“to seek for highly specialized man ina fauna 
where no living genus of placental mammal was 
present would be an idle and hopeless quest.” 
Coming to the Miocene age, we find traces of 


28 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


extensive submergences of parts of the European 
continent, followed by reélevations. Consider- 
able portions of Gaul and Italy were laid under 
water, and at one time the whole basin of the 
Danube was covered by a sea which connected 
with the Mediterranean near Berne, thus reduc- 
ing Switzerland and Italy to an archipelago. The 
Alps, however, seem to have maintained a rela- 
tive height as great as that of to-day, in compari- 
son with the lands about them. ‘The elevated 
position which Britain had occupied in the Eocene 
age seems to have been kept up during the Mio- 
cene. The whole of Britain and Ireland, with 
the English and Irish channels, the German 
Ocean, and the Atlantic ridge between Scotland 
and Greenland, stood at an average of nearly 
3,000 feet higher than they do to-day, so that 
the whole region remained dry land, and Gaul 
was still joined in this way to Scandinavia and 
North America. Above this high level the Scot- 
tish Highlands and the Welsh peaks rose to a 
height of some 7,000 feet, having since been worn 
down to half that height by rain and ice. Many 
of these great mountains, thus standing nearly 
as high above sea-level as the Alps, were active 
volcanoes; and this chain of volcanoes, of which 
Hecla is now the most famous remnant, extended 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 29 


across the Atlantic ridge, all the way from Wales 
to Greenland, which was then covered with a 
luxuriant vegetation of oaks and chestnuts, vines 
and magnolias. In the earlier part of the Mio- 
cene age the general climate of Europe resembled 
that of Algiers or Louisiana at the present day, 
but at the close of the period it had become some- 
what cooler, though still sub-tropical. Gigantic 
conifers, like the famous trees of California, 400 
feet in height and 25 or more in thickness, flour- 
ished all over Europe, from Italy to Norway. 
Along with these there were cycads, fan-palms, 
palmettos, figs, laurels and myrtles, poplars, 
oaks, lindens and maples, acacias and elms, cam- 
phors and cinnamons and sandalwood; while ivies 
and bignonias grew in great luxuriance. Cranes, 
flamingos, and pelicans were common, as also 
geese, herons, pheasants, paroquets, and eagles. 
But the mammals, in this as in the preceding 
epoch, present the most instructive subject of 
study. Opossums were still present, but had 
vanished before the middle of the period; and a 
few existing genera of- placental mammals had 
come upon the scene. There were tapirs and 
small rhinoceroses, as well as squirrels, moles, and 
hedgehogs, and carnivores similar to the weasels 
and civets. Collateral ancestors of the deer and 


30 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


antelope roamed about in large herds, and by the 
middle of the period had begun to acquire small 
horns and antlers. In mid-Miocene times the an- 
chitheres disappeared, and were succeeded by the 
hipparion, much nearer in structure to the horse. 
The mastodon came in about the same time, and 
with him another elephant-like creature, the dein- 
otherium, who lived in the water like a hippo- 
potamus. Carnivores of the cat family reached 
their highest point of development as regards size 
and power in the middle and upper Miocene: the 
machairodus, or sabre-toothed lion, was much 
larger and more formidable than any lion or tiger 
now existing. The same period witnessed the 
arrival in Europe of true apes and baboons, and 
even of two species of anthropoid ape, allied to 
the gibbons, one of which, the dryopithecus, was 
as large as a man, and has been regarded as in 
some respects superior to any modern anthropoid 
ape. 

Mr. Boyd Dawkins — to whose admirable trea- 
tise on “ Early Man in Britain” this essay is un- 
der great obligations—argues forcibly against the 
probability that man occupied Europe during any 
part of the Miocene period. All the species of 
Miocene land mammals, and several of the gen- 
era, are now extinct; and Mr. Dawkins urges 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. dl 


that if man existed at that remote period it is 
incredible that he alone should have subsisted un- 
changed amid the destruction or metamorphosis 
of all other species. But it seems to me that 
Mr. Dawkins partly answers this argument him- 
self when he observes that, “ were any man-like 
animal living in the Miocene age, he might rea- 
sonably be expected to be not man, but interme- 
diate between man and something else, and to 
bear the same relation to ourselves as the Mio- 
cene apes, such as the mesopithecus, bear to those 
now living, such as the semnopithecus.” Why 
may not such a semi-human man have existed in 
the Miocene age, the race having undergone since 
then changes parallel to those which have affected 
the apes, or to those which have affected generally 
such Miocene genera as have survived down to 
our times? No remains of any such creature 
have been found, but it is indisputable that arti- 
ficially chipped flints and the artificially cut rib 
of an extinct species of manatee have been dis- 
covered in mid-Miocene strata in France. Mr. 
Dawkins is inclined to adopt M. Gaudry’s sug- 
gestion that the flints may have been chipped and 
the rib cut by the great man-like ape, the dryopi- 
thecus; for although it is not known that any 
existing apes are in the habit of chipping flints 


32 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


or cutting bones, yet it is not impossible that the 
dryopithecus may have somewhat surpassed the 
present apes in intelligence. On the other hand, 
M. de Mortillet regards these relics as conclusive 
proof of the existence of man in mid-Miocene 
Gaul. The question can hardly be decided at 
present ; but it does not seem to me that Mr. 
Dawkins’s line of argument, which is so conclu- 
sive when applied to the Eocene age, is equally 
conclusive when applied to the Miocene. At an 
epoch when there were no true apes as yet to be 
found, when even the lemurs bore marks of kin- 
ship with the ancestors of ruminants and pachy- 
derms, and when the carnivorous type was but 
half developed, it would clearly be idle to expect 
to find traces of man. But an epoch when many 
modern genera had come into existence in all the 
principal orders, and when in particular there ex- 
isted an ape as high, or higher, in organization 
than the modern chimpanzee or gorilla, I can see 
no such overwhelming improbability of the exist- 
ence of man himself. No doubt, however, if the 
remains of Miocene man are ever to be found, 
they will disclose a type of humanity quite differ- 
ent from, and very likely much lower than, any 
that we now know. It*is not at all improbable 
that such remains will by and by be discovered in 


Hurope before the Arrival of Man. 33 


some part of the earth, if not in Europe. By the 
time the strata of Africa have been explored with 
anything like the minuteness with which those 
of France and England have been examined, we 
shall be very likely to meet with clear indications 
of the former presence of half-human man, and it 
will not be strange if such indications lead us far 
back into the Miocene epoch. 

In the Pliocene period the geographical struct- 
ure of Europe began to be much more like what 
it is to-day. Hitherto, during the greater part of 
the Tertiary epoch, large portions of Russia and 
Siberia had been submerged, so that the continent 
of Asia did not extend nearly so far north as at 
present. A belt of sea appears to have stretched 
from the eastern Baltic across to the Persian Gulf, 
including the areas of the Black and Caspian seas ; 
and another wide channel seems to have run west 
of the Ural Mountains, connecting the Caspian 
area with the Arctic Ocean, so that the warm wa- 
ters of the Indian Ocean found a free passage to 
the very shores of Finland and Scandinavia. <Ac- 
cording to Professor Archibald Geikie, these shal- 
low seas disappeared early in Pliocene times, leav- 
ing the Aral, Caspian, and Black seas in some- 
thing like their present isolation. While eastern 


Europe thus began to acquire its present contour, 
f 


34 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


equally remarkable changes occurred at the same 
time in the west. The Atlantic ridge between 
Britain and Greenland was submerged, thus sep- 
arating Europe from America, and the connec- 
tions of Norway with Spitzbergen on the one 
hand and Scotland on the other were also severed 
by the encroachments of the North Sea. But the 
British Islands were still joined to each other and 
to the Gaulish mainland; the whole of Britain 
jutting out from the continent as a great trian- 
gular peninsula, with the Shetlands in the apex. 
The volcanoes of northwest Britain gradually lost 
their fires during the Pliocene age. Icebergs ap- 
peared in the North Sea, and the general climate 
of Europe, though still milder than to-day, was 
much colder than it had been during the Eocene 
and Miocene epochs. The vegetation began to 
lose its sub-tropical aspect. Bamboos, evergreen 
oaks, and magnolias still mingled with maples, 
willows, and poplars in the latitude of Lyons, but 
the cinnamon-trees and palms became restricted 
to Italy. Among mammalia, the first species that 
has continued to live down to the present time, 
namely, the African hippopotamus, appears in the 
upper Pliocene strata of Auvergne. The earliest 
true elephant, though of a species now extinct, ap- 
pears at about the same time; and contemporary 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 35 


with him were two species of mastodon, of enor- 
mous size, a rhinoceros, a tapir, two or more 
bears, the giant sabre-toothed lion, an ancestor of 
the panthers and lynxes, and two kinds of hyzena. 
There were many species of deer, with antlers, 
but for the most part unlike modern deer. The 
ox appears first in the upper Pliocene, but with- 
out horns. There were also wolves, and swine, 
and two kinds of ape. The hipparion still lived, 
but was becoming scarce, and along with him 
existed a horse, less specialized in teeth and feet 
than the modern horse. 

Now from the fact that of these Pliocene mam- 
mals every one has long since become extinct ex- 
cept the hippopotamus, Mr. Dawkins again pro- 
ceeds to argue that it is not likely that man 
inhabited Europe at that period. The alleged 
instances, three in number, of the recurrence of 
human remains in Pliocene strata of France and 
Italy he pronounces unsatisfactory ; and he does 
not even mention the brilliant investigations of 
the Geological Survey of Portugal, which have 
brought to light flint implements of undoubted 
human workmanship, in great abundance in the 
Pliocene strata of that country, buried under 1,200 
feet of superincumbent rock. These discoveries, . 


set forth by M. Ribeiro in 1871, are cited by 


36 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Professor Whitney as furnishing conclusive evi- 
dence of the presence of man in Portugal during 
the Pliocene period. In his admirable memoir on 
‘“ The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada,” 
Professor Whitney has collected a great amount 
of evidence which seems to prove that man ex- 
isted in California at an equally remote date. 
Now it is perfectly clear that the human race 
must have been in existence for a very long time 
before it could have become so widely dispersed 
over the earth as to occupy countries so distant 
from each other as California and Portugal. For 
the first appearance of man on the earth we must, 
therefore, go far back in the Pliocene period at 
any rate; and if-we are to find traces of the 
‘** missing link,” or primordial stock of primates 
from which man has been derived, we must un- 
doubtedly look for it in the Miocene. 

Of the three stages of the Tertiary period here 
passed in review, we have seen that the Eocene 
was characterized by the entire absence of genera 
and species of mammals identical with those now 
living ; in the Miocene there were genera, but no 
species, identical with those now living; in the 
Pliocene there was at least one species in Europe 
that has survived to the present day. When we 
come to the Pleistocene age, we find a majority of 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 37 


the species identical with such as still exist. But 
in regard to this Pleistocene fauna there are 
some curious circumstances, which show that the 
climate of Europe had begun to be subject to 
vicissitudes such as it had not known in the earlier 
Tertiary epochs. Among the Pleistocene mam- 
mals of Europe we find such as are characteristic 
of warm climates, —as the lion, leopard, hyzena, 
elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus ; and along 
with these we find such as characterize sub-arctic 
climates, —as the musk-sheep, reindeer, glutton, 
arctic fox, ibex, and chamois; and yet again we 
find such denizens of the temperate zone as the 
bison, horse, deer, wild boar, brown and grizzly 
bears, wolf, and rabbit, to which may be added 
the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. Now, as 
Mr. James Geikie has ably shown, this singular 
juxtaposition of northern, southern, and temper- 
ate forms points directly to great vicissitudes of 
climate. It is quite clear that when the reindeer 
came down as far as southern France, the climate 
must have been very different from what it was 
when the hippopotamus bathed in the Thames. 
We know otherwise, from purely geologic evi- 
dence, that the Pleistocene climate was very ex- 
traordinary. Hitherto, during the Tertiary period, 
the temperature of Europe seems to have been 


38 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


steadily but slowly decreasing, from the Kocene 
epoch, when it was sub-tropical, to the end of the 
Pliocene, when it was temperate, though warmer 
than at present. But in the Pleistocene epoch 
there were at least four or five, and probably 
several more, extreme changes from a warm to a 
cold climate, and back again. This period, or the 
greater part of it, has been known as the “ Glacial 
Epoch” or the “ Great Ice Age;” but recent re- 
searches have shown that over Britain and cen- 
tral Europe there were several glacial epochs, al- 
ternating with warm inter-glacial periods of long 
duration. When the cold was at its maximum, 
the whole area of Finland, Scandinavia, and Scot- 
land, with the North and Baltic seas, was buried 
under a stupendous sheet of ice, varying from 
1,000 to 2,000 feet in thickness ; and this ice-sheet 
sent off glaciers as far east as Moscow, and as far 
south as Dresden, while the Alps, the Pyrenees, 
and the mountains of Auvergne became centres 
of glaciation, inferior, indeed, to the great north- 
ern ice-sheet, but still immense in extent. While 
the climate of Pleistocene Europe thus came to 
be similar to that of modern Greenland, parallel 
phenomena were occurring all over the northern 
hemisphere. The continent of North America 
was deeply swathed in ice as far south as the 


Europe before the Arrival of Man. 39 


latitude of Philadelphia, while glaciers descended 
into North Carolina. The valleys of the Rocky 
Mountains supported enormous glaciers, and the 
same was the case in Asia with the Himalayas. 
It was during these recurrent periods of arctic 
cold that the reindeer and musk-sheep found their 
way to the south of France, while over land- 
bridges at Gibraltar and Malta the leopard and 
elephant retreated to Africa. In the intervals 
between these glacial periods, when the climate 
became milder than it is at the present day, the 
arctic mammals traveled northward again, while 
the lion returned to chase the bison and elk in the 
forests of Yorkshire. 

As the result of these prolonged and repeated 
climatic vicissitudes, and of the complicated mi- 
grations entailed by them, many of the Pliocene 
mammals still living in Europe at that time have 
become extinct, — such as the gigantic beaver, the 
cave-bear, the sabre-toothed lion, five species of 
deer, three species of elephant, and two of 
rhinoceros. One race of men— known as the 
‘men of the river drift”? —had taken up their 
abode in Europe when these great changes were 
beginning, and struggled with the extremes of 
climate like their enemies, the bears and hyzenas. 
The discovery of flint knives has abundantly 


40 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


proved that man was living near the site of Lon- 
don before the big-nosed rhinoceros had become 
extinct, and before the arrival of the musk-sheep 
and the marmot in the valley of the Thames 
heralded the slow approach of the northern ice- 
sheet. But the fact that human remains of a date 
even more remote than this have also been found 
in Portugal and California shows, as I have said 
already, that man was then no new-comer upon 
the face of the earth, but must certainly have 
been in existence for many thousands of years, 
though as yet we are unable to assign either his 
primeval habitat or the precise epoch of his first 
appearance. 
January, 1882. 


i. 
THE ARRIVAL OF MAN IN EUROPE. 


TowARD the close of the Pleistocene age the 
general outlines of the European continent had 
assumed very much their present appearance 
everywhere except in the northwest. The British 
Islands still remained joined to one another and 
to the Gaulish mainland, and occupied the greater 
part of the area of the German Ocean. Accord- 
ing to Mr. James Geikie, the connection with 
Norway again became complete, and the Atlantic 
ridge was again so far elevated as to bring Scot- 
land into connection with Greenland through 
the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The whole of 
Britain stood at an average elevation of from 
600 to 1,000 feet above its present level. The 
Thames, Humber, Tyne, and Forth must all have | 
flowed into the Rhine, which emptied itself into 
the North Sea beyond the latitude of the Shet- 
lands. The glaciers of Europe had retreated 
within the Arctic Circle, or up to the higher val- 
leys of the great mountain ranges; and the cli- 


42 Excursions of an Kvolutionist. 


mate was beginning to assume its present temper- 
ate and equable character. 

At this remote epoch Europe had already been 
inhabited by human beings during several thou- 
sand years. How long before the beginning of 
the Pleistocene period man had arrived in Europe 
is still open to question; but there is no doubt 
whatever that he lived in Gaul and Britain as a 
contemporary of the big-nosed rhinoceros, and be- 
fore the arrival of the arctic mammalia which 
were driven from the north as the glacial cold set 
in. This race of man—described by Mr. Boyd 
Dawkins as the “ River-drift Man” —is probably 
now as extinct as the cave-bear or the mammoth. 
Late in the Pleistocene period it disappeared 
from .Europe, and was replaced by a new race, 
coming from the northeast, along with the musk- 
sheep and reindeer, and called by the same emi- 
nent writer the ‘“ Cave-Man.’’ Both the Cave- 
men and River-drift men were in the stage of 
culture known as the Paleolithic, or Old Stone 
Age; that is, they used only stone implements, 
and these implements were never polished or 
ground to a fine edge, but were only roughly 
chipped into shape, and were very rude and irreg- 
ular in contour. The Paleolithic Age, referring 
as the phrase does to a stage of culture, and not 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 43 


to any chronological period, is something which 
has come and gone at very different dates in dif- 
ferent parts of the world. It may be convenient 
to remember that in northwestern Europe it 
seems to have very nearly coincided with the 
Pleistocene period, provided we also bear in mind 
that the coincidence is purely fortuitous. The 
implements of the River-drift men, found in 
Pleistocene river-beds, are very rude, and imply a 
social condition at least as low as that of the Aus- 
tralian savages of the present day. ‘* They con- 
sist,” says Mr. Dawkins, “of the flake; the 
chopper or pebble roughly chipped to an edge on 
one side; the hdche or oval-pointed implement, 
intended for use without a handle; an oval or 
rounded form with a cutting edge all round, which 
may have been used in a handle; a scraper for 
preparing skins ; and pointed flints used for bor- 
ing.” Man did not then seek for the materials 
out of which to make these weapons or tools, but 
‘*merely fashioned the stones which happened to 
be within his reach — flint, quartzite, or chert — 
in the shallows of the rivers, as they were wanted, 
throwing them away after they had been used.” 
No pottery of any sort has been found in associa- 
tion with these implements, nor were there at that 
period any domesticated animals. The River- 


44 Exeursions of an Evolutionist. 


drift men were evidently no tillers of the ground, 
neither were they herdsmen or shepherds; but 
they gained a precarious subsistence by hunting 
the great elk and other deer, and contended with 
packs of hyzenas for the caves which might serve 
for a shelter against the storm. As to what may 
have been the social organization of these pri- 
meval savages, nothing whatever is known. They 
were a wide-spread race. Their implements have 
been found, in more or less abundance, in Britain, 
Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, northern 
Africa, Palestine, and Hindustan. Their bones 
have been found in the valleys of the Rhine, the 
Seine, the Somme, and the Vezére, in sufficient 
numbers to show that they were a dolicocephalic 
or long-headed race, with prominent jaws, but 
no complete skeleton has as yet been discovered. 
These River-drift men, as already observed, 
belonged to the southern fauna which inhabited 
Europe before the approach of the glacial cold. 
As the climate of Europe became arctic and tem- 
perate by turns, the River-drift men appear to 
have by turns retreated southward to Italy and 
Africa, and advanced northward into Britain, 
along with the leopards, hyzenas, and elephants, 
with which they were contemporary. But after 
several such migrations they returned no more, 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 45 


but instead of them we find plentiful traces of the 
Cave-men, — a race apparently more limited in 
its range, and clearly belonging to a sub-arctic 
fauna. ‘The bones and implements of the Cave- 
men are found in association with remains of the 
reindeer and bison, the arctic fox, the mammoth, 
and the woolly rhinoceros. They are found in 
great abundance in southern and central England, 
in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland, and in 
every part of France ; but nowhere as yet have 
their remains been discovered south of the Alps 
and Pyrenees. A diligent exploration of the 
Pleistocene caves of England and France, during 
the past twenty years, has thrown some light 
upon their mode of life. Not a trace of pottery 
has been found anywhere associated with their 
remains, so that it is quite clear that the Cave- 
men did not make earthenware vessels. Burnt 
clay is a peculiarly indestructible material, and 
where it has once been in existence it is sure to 
leave plentiful traces of itself. Meat was baked 
in the caves by contact with hot stones, or 
roasted before the blazing fire. Fire may have 
been obtained by friction between two pieces of 
wood, or between bits of flint and iron pyrites. 
Clothes were made of the furs of bisons, reindeer, 
bears, and other animals, rudely sewn together 


46 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


with threads of reindeer sinew. Even long fur 
gloves were used, and necklaces of shells and of 
bear’s and lion’s teeth. The stone tools and 
weapons were far finer in appearance than those 
of the River-drift men, though they were still 
chipped, and not ground. They made borers and 
saws as well as spears and arrowheads; and be- 
sides these stone implements they used spears and 
arrows headed with bone, and daggers of reindeer 
antler. The reindeer, which thus supplied them 
with clothes and weapons, was also slain for food ; 
and, besides, they slew whales and seals on the 
coast of the Bay of Biscay, and in the rivers they 
speared salmon, trout, and pike. They also ap- 
pear to have eaten, as well as to have been eaten 
by, the cave-lion and cave-bear. Many details of 
their life are preserved to us through their ex- 
traordinary taste for engraving and _ carving. 
Sketches of reindeer, mammoths, horses, cave- 
bears, pike, and seals, and hunting scenes have 
been found by the hundred, incised upon antlers 
or bones, or sometimes upon stone; and the ar- 
tistic skill which they show is really astonishing, 
Most savages can make rude drawings of objects 
in which they feel a familiar interest, but such 
drawings are usually excessively grotesque, like a 
child’s attempt to depict a man as a sort of figure 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 4T 


eight, with four straight lines standing forth from 
the lower half to represent the arms and legs. 
But the Cave-men, with a piece of sharp-pointed 
flint, would engrave, on a reindeer antler, an out- 
line of a urus so accurately that it can be clearly 
distinguished from an ox or a bison. And their 
drawings are remarkable not only for their ac- 
curacy, but often equally so for the taste and 
vigour with which the subject is treated. 

Among uncivilized races of men now living, 
there are none which possess this remarkable ar- 
tistic talent save the Eskimos; and in this respect 
there is complete similarity between the Eskimos 
and the Cave-men. But this is by no means the 
only point of agreement between the Eskimos 
and the Cave-men. Between the sets of tools 
and weapons used by the one and by the other 
the agreement is also complete. The stone spears 
and arrow-heads, the sewing-needles and skin- 
scrapers, used by the Eskimos are exactly like 
the similar implements found in the Pleistocene 
caves of France and England. The necklaces and 
amulets of cut teeth and the daggers made from 
antler, show an equally close correspondence. The 
resemblances are not merely general, but extend 
so far into details that if modern Eskimo remains 
were to be put into European caves they would 


48 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


be indistinguishable in appearance from the re- 
mains of the Cave-men which are now found 
there. Now, when these facts are taken in con- 
nection with the facts that the Cave-men were an 
arctic race, and especially that the musk-sheep, 
which accompanied the advance of the Cave-men 
into Europe, is now found only in the country of 
the Eskimos, though its fossil remains are scat- 
tered in abundance all along a line stretching 
from the Pyrenees through Germany, Russia, and 
Siberia, — when these facts are taken in connec- 
tion, the opinion of Mr. Dawkins, that the Cave- 
men were actually identical with the Eskimos, 
seems highly plausible. Nothing can be more 
probable than that, in early or middle Pleistocene 
times, the Eskimos lived all about the Arctic Cir- 
cle, in Siberia and northern Europe as well as in 
North America ; that during the coldest portions 
of the Glacial period they found their way as far 
south as the Pyrenees, along with the rest of the 
sub-arctic mammalian fauna to which they be- 
longed; and that, as the climate. grew warmer 
again, and vigorous enemies from the south began 
to press into Europe and compete with them, they 
gradually fell back to the northward, leaving be- 
hind them the innumerable relics of their former 
presence, which we find in the late Pleistocene 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 49 


caves of France and England. The Eskimos, 
then, are probably the sole survivors of the Cave- 
men of the Pleistocene period: among the pres- 
ent people of Europe the Cave-men have left no 
representatives whatever. 

With the passing away of Pleistocene times, 
further considerable changes occurred in the geog- 
raphy of Europe and in its population. Early 
in the Recent period the British Islands had be- 
come detached from each other and from the con- 
tinent, and the North Sea and the English and 
Irish channels had assumed very nearly their 
present sizes and shapes. The contour of the 
Mediterranean, also, had become nearly what it 
is now; and in general such changes as have oc- 
curred in the physical structure of Europe during 
the Recent period have been comparatively slight. 
Of: the mammalia living at the beginning of this 
period, only one species, the Irish elk, has become 
extinct. The gigantic cave-bear, the cave-lion, 
the mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros had all 
become extinct at the close of the Pleistocene pe- 
riod, and the elephants and hyenas had finally 
retreated into Africa. In Europe were now to 
be found the brown and grizzly bearc, the elk and 
reindeer, the wild boar, the urus or wild ox, the 


wolf and fox, the rabbit and hare, and the badger; 
4 


50 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and along with these there came those harbingers 
of the dawn of civilization, — the dog and horse, 
the domestic ox and jig, with the sheep and goat. 
A new race of men, also, the tamers and owners 
of these domestic animals, had appeared on the 
scene. These new men could build rude huts of 
oak logs and rough planks, made by splitting the 
tree-trunks with wedges. Such work was not 
done with chipped flint-flakes. The men of the 
early Recent period had the grindstone, and used 
it to put a fine edge on their stone hatchets and 
adzes ; so that their appearance marks the begin- 
ning of a new era in culture. The sharp and 
accurate edge of the axe, unattainable save by 
grinding, is the symbol of this new era, which is 
known to archeologists as the Neolithic, or New 
Stone Age. The huts of the Neolithic farmers 
and shepherds were built in clusters, and de- 
fended by stockades. Wheat and flax were raised, 
and linen garments were added to those of fur. 
The distaff and loom, in rude shape, were in use, 
and grain was pounded in the mortar with a pes- 
tle. Rude earthenware vessels were made, some- 
times ornamented with patterns. Canoes were 
also in use. The dead were buried in long bar- 
rows, and from the almost constant presence of 
arrow-heads, pottery, or trinkets in these tombs 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 51 


it has been inferred that the Neolithic men had 
some idea of a future life, and buried these ob- 
jects for the use of the departed spirits, as is the 
custom among most savage races at the present 
time. 

The celebrated lake-villages of Switzerland be- 
long to the Neolithic or early Recent period ; and 
the remains of their cattle and of their cultivated 
seeds and fruits have thrown light upon the or. 
igin of the Neolithic civilization. It is certain 
that the domestic animals did not originate in 
Europe, but were domesticated in central Asia, 
which was the home of their wild ancestors; and, 
moreover, they were not introduced into Europe 
gradually and one by one, but suddenly and en 
masse. It is clear, therefore, that they must have 
been brought in from Asia by the Neolithic men ; 
and the same is true of the four kinds of wheat, 
two of barley, the millet, peas, poppies, apples, 
pears, plums, and flax, which grew in the gardens 
and orchards of Neolithic Switzerland. 

This rudimentary Neolithic civilization was 
spread all over Europe, with the exception of the 
northern parts of Russia and Scandinavia; and 
there can be no doubt that it lasted for a great 
many centuries. It certainly lingered in Gaul 
and Britain long after the valley of the Nile had 


52 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


become the seat of a mighty empire; perhaps 
even after the Akkadian power had established 
itself at the mouth of the Euphrates, and ‘“ Ur 
of the Chaldees”’ had become a name famous in 
the world. Still more, it is clear that the Neo- 
lithic population has never been swept out of 
Europe, like: the Cave-men and the River-drift 
men who had preceded it, but has remained there, 
in a certain sense, to this day, and constitutes a 
very important portion of our own ancestry. 

So many skeletons have been obtained of the 
men and women of the Neolithic period that we 
can say, with some confidence, that the whole of 
Europe was inhabited by one homogeneous popu- 
lation, uniform in physical appearance. The stat- 
ure was small, averaging 5 feet 4 inches for the 
men, and 4 feet 11 inches for the women; and 
the figure was slight. The skulls were “ dolico- 
cephalic,” or long and narrow; but the jaws were 
small, the eyebrows and cheek-bones were not 
very prominent, the nose was aquiline, and the 
general outline of the face oval and probably 
handsome. In all these points the men of the 
Neolithic age agree exactly with the Basks of 
northern Spain, the remnant of a population 
which at the dawn of history still maintained an 
independent existence in many parts of Europe. 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 53 


By their conquerors, the Kelts, who led the van 
of the great Aryan invasion of Europe, these 
small-statured Basks were known as ‘ Iberians ” 
or “ westerners” (Gael. cver, Sanskr. avara, “ west- 


? 


ern’’), and “Iberian” is now generally adopted 
as the name of the race which possessed the whole 
of Europe in the Neolithic age and until the 
Aryan invasions, and which still preserves its in- 
tegrity in the little territory between the Pyre- 
nees and the Bay of Biscay. The Iberian com- 
plexion is a dark olive, with black eyes and black 
hair; so that we may figure to ourselves with 
some completeness how the prehistoric inhabi- 
tants of Europe looked. 

It is probable that’in Neolithic times this Ibe- 
rian population was spread not only all over Eu- 
rope, but also over Africa north of the Desert of 
Sahara; so that the Moorish and Berber peoples 
are simply Iberians, with more or less infusion of 
blood from the Arabs, who conquered them at the 
end of the seventh century after Christ. And it 
is also probable that the Silures of ancient Brit- 
ain, the Ligurians of southern Gaul and northern 
Italy, and the rich and powerful Etruskans all 
belonged to the Iberian race. 

In very recent times — probably not more than 
twenty centuries before Christ — Europe was in- 


54 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


vaded by a new race of men, coming from central 
Asia. These were the Aryans, a race tall and 
massive in stature (the men averaging at least 5 
feet 8 inches, and the women 5 feet 38 inches), 
with “ brachycephalic ” or round and broad skulls, 
with powerful jaws and prominent eyebrows, with 
faces rather square or angular than oval, with 
fair, ruddy complexions and blue eyes, and red 
or flaxen hair. Of these, the earliest that came 
may perhaps have been the Latin tribes, with the 
Dorians and Jonians; but the first that made their 
way through western Europe to the shores of the 
Atlantic were the Gael, or true Kelts. After 
these came the Kymry; then the Teutons; and 
finally —in very recent times, near the beginning 
of the Christian era—the Slavs. These Aryan 
invaders were further advanced in civilization 
than the Iberians, who had so long inhabited 
Europe. They understood the arts which the 
latter understood, and, besides all this, they had 
learned how to work metals; and their invasion 
of Europe marks the beginning of what archeeol- 
ogists call the Bronze Age, when tools and weap- 
ons were no longer made of polished stones, but 
were wrought from an alloy of copper and tin. 
The great blonde Aryans everywhere overcame 
the small brunette Iberians, but, instead of one 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 55 


race exterminating or expelling the other, the 
two races everywhere became commingled in 
various proportions. In Greece, southern Italy, 
Spain, and southern France, where the Iberians 
were most numerous as compared with the Aryan 
invaders, the people are still mainly small in stat- 
ure and dark in complexion. In Russia and Sean- 
dinavia, where there were very few Iberians, the 
people show the purity of their Aryan descent in 
their fair complexion and large stature. While in 
northern Italy and northern France, in Germany 
and the British Islands, the Iberian and Aryan 
statures and complexions are intermingled in end- 
less variety. 

We have now carried this brief account of the 
arrival of man in Europe as far as is requisite for 
our present purpose. Starting from ages of which 
only a paleontological record is preserved, we 
have gradually come down to a period almost 
within the ken of history. We have seen Europe 
inhabited in succession by four distinct races of 
men: first, the men of the River-drift, who be- 
longed to a warm climate, and who during the 
Glacial period became extinct, along with many 
of the sub-tropical mammals with which they 
were contemporary ; secondly, the Cave-men, who 
belonged to a cold climate, and of whom the Es- 


56 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


kimos are now probably a surviving remnant; 
thirdly, the swarthy Iberians ; and, fourthly, the 
fair-skinned Aryans, — these two latest races hay- 
ing by intermarriage given rise to the present 
mixed population of Europe. 

Our next problem is to see how far it may be 
possible to introduce anything like chronology 
into this series of events. How long is it since 
the River-drift men inhabited Europe? Or when 
did the first Iberians, with their polished stone 
axes and their herds of cattle, begin to build their 
rude villages in Switzerland and Gaul? To such 
questions no very positive answers can be re 
turned. But still we are not left wholly in the 
dark. A method of inquiry can be pointed out, 
by following which we may at least come to un- 
derstand the “orders of magnitudes” in time 
with which we have to deal. We can substitute 
partially definite conceptions for wholly vague 
ones. And we can see how, by following the 
same line of inquiry with more ample data, it 
may be possible by and by to introduce some- 
thing like chronology into the geologic history of 
the earth’s surface. | 

The so-called ** Glacial epoch” here all at once 
acquires a wonderful interest for us. We have 
seen that it is certain that men inhabited Britain 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 57 


- contemporaneously with the big-nosed rhinoceros, 
which became extinct about the beginning of the 
Glacial period. How long men lived upon the 
earth before that time we do not know; but it is 
clearly established that there were men in Britain 
then. It would accordingly be very interesting to 
know when the Glacial period began to come on 
in Europe. But on this point it has already be- 
come possible to form something like a definite 
opinion. 

To understand how we can arrive at a date for 
the Glacial period, it is necessary first to under- 
stand the cause of that wonderful change of 
climate which allowed all Europe as far south as 
Dresden, and all America as far south as Phila- 
delphia, to become swathed in an ice-sheet like 
that which now covers Greenland. The causes 
of this event were many and complicated, but the 
arch-cause — the cause which unlocked all the 
others and set them going —was an astronom- 
ical cause. It has been proved by Mr. Croll that 
the primary cause of the glaciation of the north- 
ern hemisphere was a change in the shape of the 
earth’s orbit, such as had occurred before and will 
occur again ; and the dates of these changes in the 
orbit, whether past or future, can be determined 
by astronomical methods with great accuracy. 


58 Excursions of an Hvolutiontst. 


The reason why the weather is warmer in 
summer than in winter is that in summer the days 
are longer than the nights, so that the surface of 
the earth receives more heat in the day-time than 
it can lose by radiation during the night; while in 
winter the case is exactly the reverse. Another 
circumstance tends to make the earth warmer at 
one time than another, — namely, the fact that 
the earth's orbit is not quite circular, but slightly 
elliptical or eccentric, so that at one season of the 
year the earth is nearer to or farther from the 
sun than at another season. At present the north- 
ern hemisphere is nearest the sun in winter and 
farthest from it in summer, but the difference is 
only about 3,000,000 miles. It must also be re- 
membered that when the earth is near perihelion 
it moves faster than when it is near aphelion, so 
that the season when it is nearer the sun is always 
a little shorter than the season when it is farther 
from the sun. Thus in our northern hemisphere 
at present the winter half of the year, or the in- 
terval from the autumnal to the vernal equinox, 
is nearly 8 days shorter than the summer half of 
the year. Thus the difference in length between 
our summer and winter seasons, and the differ- 
ence between our distances from the sun at the 
two extremes of the year, are not great differ- 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 59 


ences, but the advantage, such as it is, is on the 
side of summer. 

But these relations between the earth and the 
sun are perpetually altering. First, owing to the 
great revolution known as the “precession of 
the equinoxes,” the earth’s perihelion 10,500 years 
ago came in midsummer in the northern hemi- 
sphere, and it will come so again 10,500 years 
hence. In this state of things the winter half of 
the year was and will be 8 days longer than the 
summer half. Secondly, the shape of the earth’s 
orbit changes from time to time, under the in- 
fluence of the variously-compounded attractions 
exerted upon it by its companion planets. These 
changes occur at irregular intervals, but they 
admit of accurate calculation, and have been 
computed for 8,000,000 years in the past and 
1,000,000 years in the future by Mr. Croll, from 
formulas furnished by Leverrier. It has thus been 
ascertained that at three several times within the 
past 5,000,000 years the earth’s orbit has become 
very much elongated, so that the difference be- 
tween its greatest and least distances from the 
sun has been between four and five times as great 
as at present, — that is, it has been from 12,000,- 
000 to 14,000,000 miles. The first of these pe- 
riods of high eccentricity began 2,650,000 years 


60 Excursions of an KHvolutionist. 


ago and lasted 200,000 years; the second began 
880,000 years ago, and lasted 180,000 years; the 
third began 240,000 years ago, and lasted 160,000 
years. For the last 50,000 years, the departure 
of the earth’s orbit from the circular form has 
been exceptionally small. 

Now let us suppose one of these long periods of 
high eccentricity to coincide with one of the short 
periods of 10,500 years, when the northern hemi- 
sphere has its aphelion in winter; and _ this, of 
course, has happened not once only, but a great 
many times. Under such circumstances, the 
northern hemisphere is 98,000,000 miles distant 
from the sun at midwinter instead of 91,000,000, 
as at present, and the winter is 26 days longer 
than the summer instead of 8 days shorter, as at 
present. On the other hand, at midsummer the 
sun’s distance is only 86,000,000 miles instead of 
94,000,000, as at present. Now how must this 
state of things affect the climate of the northern 
hemisphere ? 

In the first place, the diminution in the quantity 
of heat received daily from the sun in winter 
would be such as to lower the average temperature 
of the whole northern hemisphere by about 35° 
F’., so that for example the average January 
temperature of England, which is now 39°, would 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 61 


fall to 4°. And, conversely, heat enough would 
be received to raise the mean summer temper- 
ature by about 60° above what it now is. 

So far very good, as concerns the amount of 
heat actually received from the sun. But would 
the summer temperature be raised like this? It 
would not; and this is because our earth has a 
means of storing up cold, so to speak, which gives 
winter the advantage over summer in such a con- 
test. With the mean January temperature, of 
England at 4° F. instead of 89°, all the moisture 
which now falis as rain would fall as snow, and 
would accumulate on the ground. At the coming 
of summer, all the snow and ice would have to be 
melted, and it takes a great deal of heat to melt 
snow and ice. As Mr. Wallace graphically puts 
it, “to melt a layer of ice only one and a half 
inch thick would require as much heat as would 
raise a stratum of air 800 feet thick from the 
freezing-point to the tropical heat of 88° F.!” 
Until the snow is all melted, no amount of solar 
heat can raise the temperature much above the 
freezing-point; and this is the reason why, in 
regions where much moisture is condensed as 
snow, as:in Greenland, and at the summits of the 
Andes, Alps, and Himalayas, snow is perpetual. 
So that, in the case we have supposed, the extra 


62 © Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


heat received from the sun in the short summer 
would largely be exhausted in melting the snow, 
and, instead of raising the mean temperature 60°, 
it is doubtful if it would raise it at all above the 
point which it attains at the present time. Be- 
sides all this, it must be remembered that the 
rapid melting of great masses of snow produces 
fog, and thus not only obscures the sun’s heat, 
but leads to further heavy condensation in the 
shape of cold rains. Now bear in mind that this 
state of things goes on for at least half of the 
period of 10,500 years, when the aphelion of the 
northern hemisphere occurs between September 
and March, and it is easy to see how the snow 
and ice must so far gain the upper hand that the 
intense summer heat cannot produce any consid- 
erable impression on them, but the region of 
‘‘ eternal snow,” no longer confined to the tops of 
lofty mountains, descends to the sea-level through- 
out a large part of the northern hemisphere. 
Thus we get far toward an explanation of the 
causes of the Glacial epoch. But still other 
causes have conspired with those here pointed out 
to enhance the general effect. 

While the northern hemisphere was situated 
as just described, the state of things in the south- 
ern hemisphere must have been entirely different. 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 63 


There the perihelion occurring in winter and the 
aphelion in summer, with the same high eccen- 
tricity, the summer would be 26 days longer than 
the winter, and the climatic result would be per- 
petual spring. And this would affect the flow of 
ocean-currents in such a way as to deprive the 
northern hemisphere of its only possible chance of 
escaping the glaciation we have just depicted. Let 
us notice this point carefully, for it is one of great 
importance. 

We have supposed the lowering of the average 
winter temperature of England, for example, due 
to the great aphelion distance of the sun, to be 
35° F. There is one way in which this effect 
might be partially modified, and that is by the 
equalizing influence of the Gulf Stream. But in 
the case we have supposed, this influence would 
almost certainly be cut off. The direction of the 
main ocean-currents is determined by the trade- 
winds, and the trade-winds are caused by the dif- 
ference of temperature between the poles and the 
equator. As the heated air at the equator rises, 
the cooler air from north and south flows in to 
take its place, and these atmospheric currents 
flowing from the north and south poles toward 
the equator are what are called the trade-winds. 
The strength of the trade-winds depends entire?y 


64 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


upon the difference in temperature between the 
equator and the pole; the greater the difference, 
the stronger the wind. Now, at the present time, 
the south pole is much colder than the north pole, 
and the southern trades are consequently much 
stronger than the northern, so that the neutral 
zone in which they meet lies some five degrees 
north of the equator. ‘The trade-winds, pushing 
stupendous masses of surface ocean-water, produce 
the main ocean-currents ; and accordingly these 
currents now tend chiefly from south to north, so 
that most of the heated water of the central At- 
lantic, both north and south of the equator, gets 
carried into the northern temperate zone. In this 
way the Gulf Stream, coming northward up the 
west coast of Africa, sweeps across the Atlantic 
to the easternmost point of Brazil, where part of 
it gets deflected southward toward the Antarctic 
Ocean, but most of it flows northwesterly into the 
Gulf of Mexico, whence it is deflected northeast- 
erly toward the European coast, giving to Eng- 
land its climate of perpetual spring in the latitude 
of Labrador, and tempering the cold of the North 
Sea even beyond the Arctic Circle. According 
to Mr. Croll, the quantity of extra heat which 
the northern hemisphere receives from this source, 
over and above that which it would get simply 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 65 


from direct solar radiation, amounts to fully one 
fourth of the latter quantity. But when the 
aphelion of the northern hemisphere occurred in 
midwinter, along with a very high eccentricity, 
all this must have been changed. The tendency 
of these circumstances, as we have seen, was to 
make the northern hemisphere very cold, while 
producing a perpetual spring in the southern 
hemisphere. Now, when once the north pole 
had become colder than the south pole, the north- 
ern trades would begin to blow with greater force 
than the southern, until aiter a while the neutral 
line between the two would be shifted south of 
the equator, and, instead of the warm waters of 
the southern tropical ocean being carried into the 
northern seas, the case would be just the reverse. 
The great ocean-currents, instead of all tending 
northward, as they do to-day, would all tend 
southward. A very little deflection of this sort 
would, at the easternmost point of Brazil, turn 
the whole of the Gulf Stream southward down 
the coast of South America, and prevent any part 
of it from flowing up into the North Atlantic, 
and in this way the progressing refrigeration of 
Europe and North America would be most pow- 
erfully enhanced. 


Thus, when the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit 
5 


66 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


was three or four times as great as at present, and 
during the period when aphelion in the northern 
hemisphere occurred in the winter season between 
September and March, the tendency must have 
been toward perpetual snow and ice over a large 
part of the northern hemisphere, and toward 
perpetual spring throughout the southern hemi- — 
sphere. But when winter aphelion occurred in 
the southern hemisphere, then everything was re- 
versed; then the tendency south of the equator 
was toward glaciation, and north of the equator 
it was toward perpetual spring. In Europe you 
would have, for 10,500 years, a period during 
which the climate would gradually become more 
and more arctic for 5,250 years, thenceforward 
gradually becoming less severe; and upon this 
would ensue another period of 10,500 years, dur- 
ing which the climate would grow more and more 
equable for 5,250 years, thenceforward gradually 
increasing again the differences between summer 
and winter ; and ina period of 160,000 years such 
21,000-year cycles would naturally occur nearly 
eight times. So that, upon a geological survey of 
what is called the Glacial epoch, we might expect 
to find an alternation of severe and mild climates 
in Europe,—an alternation of epochs in which 
Britain was inhabited by the hippopotamus with 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 67 


epochs in which the reindeer roamed to the south 
of France. And this is, in fact, what we do find. 
Tt is not long since the Glacial period in Europe 
was supposed to have been one long monotonous 
period of extreme cold; but now the foremost 
geologists — such as Mr. James Geikie, who has 
more than any one else illustrated this subject — 
have discovered at least four or five alternations 
of warm and cold periods in Europe during the 
Glacial epoch; and with further and more mi- 
nute research we may expect the agreement be- 
tween observation and deduction to become still 
more convincing. 

Enough has now been said to give the reader 
some idea of the magnificent line of reasoning by 
which Mr. Croll has unfolded the causes of the 
Glacial period. And it also becomes apparent at 
once why we must probably select the latest pe- 
riod of high eccentricity in the earth’s orbit as 
the period for which we lave been seeking. For 
that period — which began 240,000 years ago, and 
terminated 80,000 years ago —presented such a 
set of astronomical circumstances as must have 
resulted in the repeated glaciation of the northern 
hemisphere, after the manner above described. 
And the antiquity of that period seems to be suf- 
ficiently great to allow for the geological changes 


68 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


which have occurred since the Pleistocene age. 
If we were to assign an earlier epoch of high ec- 
centricity for the Glacial period, it would then 
become necessary to show why, with the present 
relations of land and sea on the globe, the latest 
epoch of high eccentricity should not have pro- 
duced a subsequent glacial period. But the Gla- 
cial period which Agassiz first taught us to under- 
stand, and which in recent years has been made 
the subject of such minute study, is clearly the 
latest glacial period that has occurred in the 
northern hemisphere ; for it is the one of which 
the traces are now everywhere around us; it is 
the one which has carved the mountains of Scot- 
land and New England in their present beautiful 
outlines, and covered their sides with boulders, 
and filled the valleys with romantic tarns or mag- 
nificent lakes. If we adopt Mr. Croll’s theory of 
the causes of glaciation, we are clearly bound to 
look to the latest rather than to any earlier mani- 
festation of those causes, in order to account for 
that glacial period the effects of which are still 
visible all around us. Accordingly, among the 
foremost geologists who have adopted Mr. Croll’s 
conclusions, there has been a general agreement 
that the period of high eccentricity which began 
240,000 years ago and ended 80,000 years ago 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 69 


must have been coincident with the great period 
of glaciation which occurred during the Pleisto- 
cene age in Europe and America. 

The most serious objection that has been urged 
~ against Mr. Croll’s theory is that it seems to re- 
quire us to suppose that there have been recurrent 
glacial epochs, at irregular intervals, during the 
whole past duration of the earth’s history. And 
in particular it would seem to be implied that 
there must have been a great glacial period from 
880,000 to 700,000 years ago, and another one 
from 2,650,000 to 2,450,000 years ago, both of 
these dates being long subsequent to the begin- 
ning of the Tertiary period. Mr. Croll has sought 
to meet these objections by showing that such 
must really have been the case. He alleges evi- 
dence of glaciation in every one of the geological 
periods back to the Cambrian, with the single 
exception of the Triassic. And he argues, in 
particular, that the epoch of high eccentricity 
which began 880,000 years ago corresponded with 
a glacial epoch in the Miocene period, and that in 
like manner the date of 2,650,000 years ago wit- 
nessed the beginning of a great glacial epoch in 
the Eocene period. But these conclusions are 
not generally adopted by geologists. There are 
some evidences of local glaciation in the Miocene 


70 Excursions of an Hvolutionisv. 


period in the neighbourhood of the Alps, which 
were probably higher then than they are at pres- 
ent, but- the weight of evidence is entirely in fa- 
vour of the conclusion that the general climate of 
Europe throughout the Eocene and Miocene pe- 
riods was much warmer than it has been at any 
later date. From the Eocene period down to the 
Pleistocene, there can be little doubt that there 
was a slow but steady lowering of the mean tem- 
perature of Europe, until in the latter period there 
occurred that comparatively rapid refrigeration 
which brought about a glacial epoch. In earlier 
than Tertiary times, on the other hand, Mr. Croll 
seems to have been more successful. There are 
distinct and numerous evidences of extensive gla- 
ciation in Europe during the remote Permian 
period ; and it is not improbable that similar phe- 
nomena may have taken place in Silurian times. 
On the whole, however, it does not seem likely 
that there have been many periods of extreme gla- 
ciation, like that which we suppose to have ended 
about 80,000. years ago; and it is quite unlikely 
that there has been any other such period since 
the beginning of Tertiary times. How, then, shall 
we explain the occurrence of two periods of high 
eccentricity, one lasting 200,000 and the other 
180,000 years, without an accompanying glacia 
tion of the northern hemisphere ? 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 71 


This difficulty has been sometimes cited as fatal 
to Mr. Croll’s theory; but when we fully consider 
all the conditions of the case, we shall see that it 
is not so. For we must remember that it is not 
simply the cold, but it is the snow of the glacial 
winter, that chills the summers and renders pos- 
sible the accumulation of ice. To produce a gla- 
cial epoch, according to Mr. Croll’s theory, it is 
not enough that the mean winter temperature of 
the northern hemisphere should be lowered 35° F., 
unless there is enough condensation of moisture 
going on to produce an abundant snowfall. Under 
such geographical conditions as exist to-day, and 
as existed during the Pleistocene period, there 
would be sucha condensation and such a snow- 
fall; but in the Eocene and Miocene periods it 
was probably otherwise. The explanation is not 
difficult. 

The most efficient promoters of condensation 
are mountains, which, thrusting their cold sum- 
mits high into the air, precipitate the surrounding 
moisture. It is a familiar fact that mountainous 
districts are apt to be rainy, and that very high 
mountains are usually covered with snow in mid- 
summer, even while oranges and palms are flour- 
ishing a few thousand feet below. It is not quite 
so familiar a fact that no intensity of arctic celd 


12 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


will suffice to prevent a warm or mild summer 
unless there is an extensive deposit of snow in 
the winter. Now, nowhere on the earth’do we 
find any lowlands of great extent covered with 
perpetual snow. The coldest winters on the 
globe occur in eastern Siberia, where the temper- 
ature often averages —40° F. for several weeks 
in succession, and, according to Professor Pum- 
pelly, sometimes sinks to —120° F.! Yet so dry 
is the atmosphere that but little snow falls, and 
after this has been melted in the spring the 
weather rapidly grows warm. ‘ At Yakutsk, in 
62 degrees N. latitude, the thermometer stands 
often at T7° in the shade, and wheat and rye pro- 
duce from fifteen to forty fold,” while the prairies 
are covered with grass and flowers. As Mr. Wal- 
lace observes, ‘‘it is only where there are lofty 
mountains or plateaus — as in Greenland, Spitz- 
bergen, and Grinnell Land — that glaciers, accom- 
panied by perpetual snow, cover the country, and 
descend in places to the level of the sea.” The 
coast of the Antarctic Continent is girded with 
lofty mountains, which effect such condensation 
in the damp sea-air about them that the continent 
is buried under a mass of ice more than a mile in 
thickness. The antarctic islands South Georgia 
and South Shetland “ are very mountainous, and 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 73 


send down glaciers into the sea; and as they are 
exposed to moist sea-air on every side, the precipi- 
tation, almost all of which takes the form of snow 
even in summer, is of course unusually large.” 

In order, therefore, to get a centre from which 
to start an accumulation of snow and ice sufficient 
to bring on a glacial epoch in the northern hemi- 
sphere, it would seem absolutely necessary that 
there should be a considerable amount of high 
land within the Arctic Circle. But in the Eocene 
and Miocene periods this condition does not seem 
to have been satisfied. Throughout the greater 
part of these two periods the area within the 
Arctic Circle was less elevated than it has been 
ever since the beginning of the Pliocene age. 
Greenland stood lower than at present, and the 
greater part of Siberia was submerged. More- 
over, as already stated in the preceding paper, the 
continents of Europe and Asia did not become 
“united into one unbroken mass”’ until the Phio- 
cene period. In the earlier Tertiary times the 
warm waters of the Indian Ocean flowed north- 
westward between Asia and Europe even into the 
Arctic Ocean, the mountains of Armenia and the 
Caucasus protruding as islands from this vast sea 
surface. Again, Mr. Wallace has pointed out a 
number of peculiarities in the distribution of 


74 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


plants and animals in the southern hemisphere 
which ‘render it almost certain” that in the 
early Tertiary times the antarctic land was much 
more extensive than at present. Now an eleva- 
tion in the antarctic region, increasing the deposit 
of snow and ice about the south pole, and thus 
increasing the difference of temperature between 
the south pole and the equator, would be just 
what was needed to convert the fickle monsoons 
of the Indian Ocean into a steady and powerful 
trade-wind, that would drive the warm water 
northward through the channel between Europe 
and Asia, even as far as the north pole. This 
current from the Indian Ocean must have been 
more than equal to the Gulf Stream in heating 
power, and its effect would be to prevent any ac- 
cumulation of ice within the Arctic Circle, and 
to produce in Greenland such a climate as it is 
known to have enjoyed in the Miocene period, 
when it was covered with a vegetation as luxuri- 
ant as that of Virginia at the present day. 

This question is discussed at considerable length 
and with great ability by Mr. Wallace, in his 
treatise on “Island Life.” His argument is in 
some respects the most valuable contribution that 
has ever been made to our understanding of past 
climatic changes. He makes it perfectly clear 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. 75 


that while Mr. Croll’s astronomical interpretation 
of the Glacial period is perfectly correct in prin- 
ciple, nevertheless extensive glaciation cannot 
take place unless the geographical conditions are 
such as to enable a great accumulation of ice to 
begin. We are not, therefore, obliged, on Mr. 
Croll’s view, to suppose that every epoch of high 
eccentricity has inaugurated a glacial period; and 
we see, in particular, why such a result was not 
likely to follow 2,650,000 years ago or 800,000 
years ago, supposing the latter date to have oc- 
curred before the beginning of the Pliocene age ; 
and thus the only serious objection to Mr. Croll’s 
theory is effectually disposed of. 

We have every reason to believe, then, that 
the great Glacial period of the Pleistocene age 
began 240,000 years ago, and came to an end 
80,000 years ago. But at the beginning of this 
period men were living in the valley of the 
Thames; at the end of it the men of the River- © 
drift had probably become extinct, and their 
place in Europe had been taken and held for ages 
by the boreal Cave-men, who now in turn were 
about starting on their long retreat to the arctic 
regions. How long a time may have elapsed be- 
fore the swarthy Iberian settled in Europe, with 
his dogs and cattle, we have no means of decid- 


76 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ing ; nor can we say when the blue-eyed Aryan 
began his invasions, though we know that this 
last event must have been very recent, — not 
very long before the dawn of history. Nor can 
we tell how long there had been human beings on 
thé earth before the Glacial epoch began. But, 
as I have said already, it must have been a great 
while, because, even before the close of the Plio- 
cene age, they had had time to spread over the 
earth as far as Portugal in one direction, and as 
far as California in the other. And if we are to 
take the date of 240,000 years ago for the begin- 
ning of the Glacial epoch, we can hardly allow 
for the close of the Pliocene age an antiquity of 
less than 400,000 years. 

It only remains to add that the enormous 
length of time during which the human race has 
existed is of itself a powerful argument in favour 
of the opinion — now generally accepted — that 
the human race was originated, by a slow process 
of development, from a race of non-human pri- 
mates, similar to the anthropoid apes. We see 
man living on the earth for perhaps half a mill- 
ion years, to all intents and purposes dumb, leav- 
ing none but a geological record of his existence, 
progressing with infinite slowness and difficulty, 
making no history. Yet his geologic record is not 


The Arrival of Man in Europe. i 


quite like that of the dog or the ape, who could 
not chip a flint, and in the incised antlers of the 
Cave-men we see the first faint gleams of the 
divine intelligence that was by and by to shine 
forth with the glories of a Michael Angelo. We 
cannot but suppose that during those long dumb 
ages, through infinite hardship and through the 
stern regimen of deadly competition and natural 
selection, man was slowly but surely acquiring 
that intellectual life which was at last to bloom 
forth in history, and which has made him “ the 
crown and glory of the universe.” 


January, 1882. 


Til. 
OUR ARYAN FOREFATHERS. 


In the beginning of the Vendidad, or first of 
the Parsi collection of sacred books known as the 
Zendavesta, we are told that the supreme deity 
Ahura-Mazda created a country full of delights, 
but difficult of access, and the name of this coun- 
try was Aryana Vaéjo. So charming was this 
primitive country that, had it not been made 
difficult of approach, the whole animate creation 
would have flocked thither and quite overwhelmed 
it. But this state of things did not long con- 
tinue; for Ahriman, or Anramainyus, the spirit 
of darkness, was the implacable adversary of Or- 
muzd, or Ahura- Mazda, the spirit of light, and 
took pleasure in spoiling all his creations. So 
this death-dealing enemy, with the aid of his 
daévas, or demons, created a great serpent and 
brought ten months of winter cold upon the land, 
so that Aryana Vaéjo was no longer a comfortable 
dwelling-place. The good spirit then created a 
new home for his people, called Sugdha; but the 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 79 


adversary spoiled this by creating a kind of wasp 
which devastated the fields and brought death 
to the cattle. Then Ahura-Mazda made a third 
habitat, which was called the high and holy 
Muru; but the dark demon now whispered evil 
reports and stirred up strife, until here, too, life 
became unendurable, and the beautiful land of 
Bakhdhi, or Baktria, was created as a fourth 
home for the children of light. So the warfare 
went on, until no less than sixteen countries are 
enumerated as successively created and made un- 
comfortable. In the last region of all the com- 
plaint is again of cold weather and hoar-frost ; 
but perhaps in comparison with all. the other 
plagues this now seemed endurable. At all 
events, the account here ends, with the admission 
that there are also other regions and places be- 
sides those described; as much as to say that 
we are not here concerned with the history of 
all mankind, but only with the worshippers of 
Abura-Mazda. 

The book from which this legend is cited is one 
of the oldest in the literature of the world. It 
belongs to a more primitive age than the Homeric 
poems, and may probably be regarded as con- 
temporary with the oldest hymns of the Veda. 
Written not in the court language of ancient 


80 Exeursions of an Evolutionist. 


Persia, but in the closely-related archaic dialect 
of Baktria, — very much as the ecclesiastical 
services of Russia to-day are written in Old Bul- 
garian, — the Zendavesta was, in the time of 
Darius Hystaspes, the sacred book of the most 
prominent nation in the world. For eleven hun- 
dred years afterward the worship of Ahura-Mazda 
retained its ascendency in the countries between 
Euphrates and the Indus, until in the seventh 
century after Christ this whole region was over- 
run by Mohammedans, and converted to their 
faith. For a long time, no doubt, the Magian 
religion continued to survive alongside of Islam, 
as we see from the frequent allusions to “ fire- 
in the * Arabian Nights,” where 


? 


worshippers ’ 
they are indeed most abominably slandered. But 
after a while the good Ahura-Mazda, yielding to 
this last and gravest mischief wrought by the ad- 
versary, devised yet another abode for the rem- 
nant of his people, and led them to Bombay and 
its neighbourhood, where, under the name of 
“ Parsis,” or “ Persians,” they still keep up their 
old ceremonies and their old faith. 

The legend of the sixteen countries created by 
the good spirit was regarded by Bunsen as a 
historical tradition of the migrations by which 
the ancestors of the Indo-Persians reached the 


Our Aryan forefathers. 8] 


countries where, at the beginning of authentic 
history, we find their descendants. But it will 
not do to attach too much historical value to 
legends like this. For, however venerable may 
be the record, the very mist of antiquity which 
shrouds it prevents us from knowing how or 
whence it got the information which it imparts. 
The story before us, indeed, has neither the pre- 
tensions nor the credentials of an authentic his- 
torical narrative. It relates long-past events as 
ascertained not through the sifting of previous 
human testimony, but by direct revelation from 
the good spirit to his prophet Zarathustra or 
Zoroaster. Nevertheless, the geographical succes- 
sion of the various places mentioned in this le- 
gend is very suggestive. With the exception of 
Aryana Vaéjo, every one of the sixteen abodes 
seems to be described by a genuine geographical 
name, though two or three have not yet been satis- 
factorily determined. ‘Thus Sugdha, the second 
country, is what the ancients knew as Sogdiana ; 
Muru appears to be the modern Merv, or Mar- 
giana; and Baktria, the next in order, has been 
already mentioned. And so, curiously enough, by 
stringing together the whole series of names, there 
is indicated a continuous migration from the region 


beyond the Oxus, at first southwesterly, and then 
6 


82 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


southeasterly, down to what we now call the Pun- 
jab, or “ country of five rivers,” but which in the 
Vedic hymns is somewhat more comprehensively 
termed the Sapta-Sindhavas, or “ Seven Rivers,”’ 
and which in our Zend legend is described in iden- 
tical language as the Hapta Hendu. This larger 
designation is reached by including, along with the 
five rivers of the Punjab, the Sarasvati and the 
Indus, or “ The River,” par excellence. Having 
thus reached the northwestern confines of Hindu- 
stan, in the fifteenth country created by Ahura- 
Mazda, the legend here informs us that Anramain- 
yus devised “ untimely evils and unbearable heat ;” 
and thereupon we are abruptly transported, in the 
sixteenth region, to the cool neighbourhood of the 
Caspian Sea, perhaps the country of the Medes. 
Now, however difficult it may be to accept such 
an account as properly historical, the course of 
migration here indicated is so thoroughly in ac- 
cordance with all that we know of the relations 
between the peoples of the Persian Empire and 
the dominant race of Hindus in India that it is 
hard not to grant to it some traditionary value. 
It would appear, at least, that when the Vendidad 
was composed the worshippers of Ahura-Mazda 
must have believed that their ancestors came from 
somewhere beyond the Oxus, and travelled in the 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 83 


direction of Hindustan, until something occurred 
which turned them westward again. ‘This would 
seem to be the only sound meaning that can be 
extracted from the legend. But this is in wonder- 
ful accordance with the results of modern critical 
inquiry. From a minute survey of the languages 
and legends of this whole region, it has been well 
established that the dominant race in ancient 
Persia and in ancient India was one and the 
same; that it approached India from the north- 
west; and that a great religious schism was ac- 
companied by the westward migration of a large 
part of the community, while the other part pro- 
ceeded onward, and established itself in Hindu- 
stan. A comparison of the Zendavesta with the 
Veda—so strongly alike as they are, both in 
thought and in expression — shows clearly that 
the occasion of this schism must have been the 
promulgation of the worship of Ahura-Mazda. 

In illustration of this community of origin be- 
tween the Vedic and Zendavestan peoples, let us 
refer to the name of the first country which the 
supreme deity created,—the name of Aryana 
Vaéjo. This, as already hinted, is not a geo- 
graphical name. ‘There is no identifiable locality 
which has ever been called Aryana Vaejo. The 
name means simpiy “the starting-place of the 


84 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Aryans.” In later Persian mythology, as repre- 
sented in the Minokhired, the name came to stand 
for a terrestrial paradise, where men live for three 
hundred years, without pain or sickness, where no 
lies are told, and where ten men eat of one loaf 
and grow fat thereon. In the Vendidad, however, 
Aryana Vaéjo is simply the primeval dwelling- 
place, whatever it may have been, from which the 
Aryans passed into Sogdiana. Now ‘“ Aryan” 
was the name by which the ancient Persians and 
the ancient Hindus alike described themselves. 
In the Vedic hymns the dominant people of India 
habitually speak of themselves as Aryans, in con- 
trast with the Dasyus, or inferior races of Hindu- 
stan, whom they had subdued. Just in the same 
way Darius Hystaspes, in the inscription upon his 
tomb, declares himself to be an Aryan, of Aryan 
descent. The Medes are always called Aryans 
by Armenian writers; and Herodotos was also 
familiar with this appellation. In a more special 
sense the countries between India and Persia, now 
known as Afghanistan and Cabul, were known 
throughout classic antiquity as Ariana. Along 
with this community of name there was close 
community of speech among these peoples. The 
court language of the Medes and Persians, as pre- 
served in the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius, the 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 85 


- Zend or Baktrian language, in which the sacred 
books of Zarathustra are written, and the San- 
skrit of the Vedic hymns are as clearly dialects of 
the same parental language as French, Spanish, 
and Italian are dialects of Latin. These outline 
facts are all that we need for the present to show 
how Aryan was the common name for a race 
which, advancing from the north, acquired su- 
premacy over all the country between the En- 
phrates and the mouth of the Ganges. Whence 
these people originally came it would be idle to 
inquire, but we may fairly conclude that they first 
attained to something like world-historic impor- 
tance in the highlands of central Asia, somewhere 
about the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes; 
and this region we regard as “ Aryana Vaéjo,” or 
the most aboriginal spot to which we are able to 
trace the Aryan people. 

We have next to inquire into the meaning of 
the word Aryan ; and this is not a difficult matter, 
or one about which there is much question. In 
Sanskrit the word arya, with a short initial a, is 
applied to cultivators of the soil, and it would 
seem to be connected etymologically with the 
Latin arare and the archaic English ear, ‘to 
plow.” As men who had risen to an agricultural 
stage of civilization, the Aryans might’no doubt 


86 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


fairly contrast themselves with their nomadic Tu- 
ranian neighbours, who—as Huns, Tatars, and 
Turks — have at different times disturbed the 
Indo-European world. But for the real source 
of the word, as applied to the race, we must look 
further. This word arya, “a cultivator of the 
soil,” came naturally enough in Sanskrit to mean 
a householder or land-owner, and hence it is not 
strange that we find it re-occurring, with a long 
initial a, as an adjective, meaning ‘ noble” or 
“of good family.” As a national appellative, 
whether in Sanskrit or Zend, this initial @ is al- 
ways long, and there can be no doubt that the 
Aryans gave themselves this title as being the 
noble, aristocratic, or ruling race, in contradistinc- 
tion to the aboriginal races which they brought 
into servitude. In this sense of noble, the word 
frequently occurs in the composition of Persian 
proper names, such as Ariobarzanes, Ariaramnes, 
and Ariarathes; just as in old English we have 
the equivalent word ethel, or noble, in such names 
as Ethelwolf and Ethelred. As an ethnic name, 
therefore, the word Aryan seems to have a tinge 
of patriotic or clannish self-satisfaction about it. 
But we shall find, I think, that such a shade of 
meaning has been more than justified by history ; 
for we have now reached a point where we may 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 87 


profitably enlarge the scope of our discussion, and 
show how the term Aryan is properly applicable, 
not merely over an Indo-Persian, but over an 
Indo-European area, comprehending the most 
dominant races known to history, —the Greeks 
and Romans, Slavs and Teutons, with the highly- 
composite English, whose language and civiliza- 
tion are now spreading themselves with unex- 
ampled rapidity over all the hitherto unoccupied 
regions of the earth, which the Vendidad did not 
care or did not know how to specify. In order 
to explain in what sense we may all properly be | 
called Aryans, we must consider for a moment 
some of the striking results which have been 
obtained, within the present century, from the 
comparative study of languages. 

No event of modern times has exerted a more 
profound and manifold influence upon the intel- 
lectual culture of mankind than the English con- 
quest of India. ‘The enlargement of our mental 
horizon which has resulted therefrom is not less 
remarkable than that which attended the revival 
of Greek studies in the fifteenth century. It is 
not simply that observation of India is making us 
acquainted with an enormous multitude of prim- 
itive social, linguistic, and religious phenomena 
which formerly were hidden from our notice. In 


88 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


contemplating these phenomena, we have become 
possessed of a method of study which has already 
wrought such wonders as to vie with the oint- 
ment of the Arabian dervise, that enabled its 
owner to detect all the buried treasures of the 
earth. This mighty talisman is the Comparative 
Method, or the attempt to interpret a fact by 
comparing it with a series of similar facts, which 
different circumstances have caused to vary in dif- 
ferent degrees. I do not mean to imply that man- 
kind have not always used this method more or 
less, both in matters of science and in matters of 
every-day life. Nor do I mean to claim for mod- 
ern philology any exclusive title to the honour of 
having shown what can be done by studying 
phenomena in this way. I do not forget that 
the classification of living and extinct animals by 
Cuvier, with reference to paleontological epochs, 
was a gigantic act of comparison, which first 
made it possible for us to understand the past 
history of life on our globe. It is none the less 
true not only that systematic employment of the 
comparative method on an extensive scale is the 
most notable philosophic achievement of the nine- 
teenth century, but also that its first great tri- 
umph was the establishment of the Aryan, or 
Indo-European, family of languages. This tri- 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 89 


umph was prepared by the study of Sanskrit, 
which ensued upon the English conquest of In- 
dia. Previous to this, indeed, the close resem- 
blance between Greek and Latin had been often 
enough remarked, and theories had been enter- 
tained concerning a primeval kinship between the 
peoples of Greece and Italy. But in the case of 
peoples so similar in aspect and so closely con- 
nected with one another from time immemorial, 
this similarity of speech did not provoke much 
curiosity. It was quite otherwise when a lan- 
guage unmistakably akin to Greek and Latin, 
both in grammar and vocabulary, was discovered 
in such an out-of-the-way country as Hindustan, 
and among a people who had hitherto been gen- 
erally supposed to be barbarians. The discovery 
was emphasized by the fact that no such obvious 
resemblances existed in Hebrew, a language much 
nearer geographically and historically, and from 
which there had been no end of futile attempts 
to derive Latin and Greek. Further interest was 
excited when it became known that this newly- 
found language contained an enormous mass of 
literature alleged to be the oldest in the world. 
All things thus combined to stimulate specula- 
tion as to the true character of the relationship 
between Sanskrit and the languages of Greece 


90 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and Rome. ‘This relationship was not one of par- 
entage. It has been a common popular error 
to suppose that Latin and Greek are derived 
from Sanskrit; but from the first no such view 
was countenanced by competent scholars. About 
1790, Sir William Jones declared his opinion that 
the three languages were sprung from ‘some 
common source, which perhaps no longer exists.” 
Persian also he was inclined to attribute to the 
same source, and he hinted at the possibility 
that Gothic and Keltic might be included in the 
group. ‘This was coming very near to the con- 
ception of an Indo-European family of languages. 
But that conception was not clearly formed until 
nearly twenty years later, and then it was reached 
not by a great philological scholar, but by a poet 
and literary critic. In 1808, Friedrich Schlegel 
maintained that the languages of India, Persia, 
Greece, Italy, and Germany were connected by 
common descent from an extinct language, just 
as the modern Romanic languages are connected 
by common descent from Latin; and for the whole 
family he proposed the name Indo-Germanic. 
The correctness of this view was demonstrated by 
Bopp, in his * Comparative Grammar,” published 
from 1833 to 1852, in which the Zend, Armenian, 


Slavonic, and Lithuanian languages also were 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 91 


added to the group. The Keltic languages were 
included about the same time, and the name 
Indo-Germanic was extended to Indo-European. 
Within the last fifteen years — mainly through 
the influence of Max Miller’s writings — the 
name Aryan has come into general use as the 
most convenient designation of the whole family. 
The use of the word in this extensive sense has 
indeed been objected to by Professor Whitney 
and others, who urge that it is properly applica- 
ble only to the Indo-Persian branch of the fam- 
ily; and in strictness their argument seems to be 
sound enough. ‘There is no evidence that any of 
the European peoples have ever called themselves 
Aryans, and the traces of the name which Miiller 
has sought to point out in Europe are very scanty 
and obscure. According to Stephanus of Byzan- 
tium, Aria was an old name for Thrace, and 
among the ancient Germans we find a tribe of 
Arii and such proper names as Ariovistus ; but it 
is by no means certain that these names are in 
any way connected with the original Arya. Nor 
did Pictet meet with any better success in his at- 
tempt to find Arya in the name of Erin or Ire- 
land, the home of the Eri, or Irish. This modern 
name is 4 contracted form. Its root in old Keltic 
seems to have been Iver, which is the same as the 


92 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Sanskrit avara, “western.” It appears in the 
Latin Avernus, a famous lake on the west coast 
of Italy, as well as in Jvernia, or Hibernia, the 
western island. This old word Iver has been 
shortened to Jr or Hr, and out of this, by putting 
on their own terminations, the English have made 
Ire-land, the home of the Ir-ish, or “ Westerners.”’ 
But in spite of the fact that we find no certain 
traces of the name Aryan in the European lan- 
guages, I believe that the modern use of the word, 
as descriptive of the whole family, is likely to 
prevail. It is a much less cumbrous term than 
“ Indo-European,” and, while it is advantageously 
free from geographical restrictions, it emphasizes, 
at the same time, the fundamental fact that the 
Aryana Vaéjo, or prehistoric starting-point of the 
eastern members of the family, was also the start- 
ing-point of the western members. It implies — 
what every one admits to be true —that the 
dominant race in Europe came from central Asia. 
And, still further, it serves admirably as a name 
for the extinct mother tongue from which all the 
Indo-European languages have descended. By 
many scholars this primitive tongue is itself called 
Indo-European; but Iam unable to see any pro- 
priety in giving such a name to a language which, 
as being confessedly spoken north of the Oxus 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 93 


and east of the Caspian, was certainly neither In- 
dian nor European in any sense. It seems to me 
much better, and more in conformity to the gen- 
eral style of philologists, to call this ancestral 
language “Old Aryan,” just as we say “ Old 
Norse” for the primitive form of Danish, Swed- 
ish, and Norwegian. 

As we now proceed to take a brief survey of the 
Aryan domain, I think we shall realize the ad- 
vantage of having a word that is independent of 
geographical limits. The Aryana of the present 
day is much more than an Indo-European region. 
Its eastern boundaries have altered but little for 
many centuries; but on the west it has extended 
“o the Pacific coast of America, and on the other 
side of the world it has begun to annex territory 
in South Africa and Australia. Indeed, if we are 
to judge from what has been going on since the 
times of Drake and Frobisher, it seems in every 
way likely that men of English speech will by 
and by have seized upon every part of the earth’s 
surface not already covered by a well-established 
civilization, and will have converted them all into 
Aryan countries. But our linguistic term Aryan 
is independent of such changes. Since prehistoric 
times eight. principal divisiens of Aryan speech 
have existed, but these groups of languages have 


94 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


had very different careers, and some of them are 
rapidly becoming extinct. The first great separa- 
tion of Aryan tribes was the separation between 
the invaders of Indo-Persia and the invaders of 
Europe. We have already observed how the 
language of the Indo-Persians became divided in 
twain. In the Indie class of languages, compris- 
ing the classical Sanskrit, the Prakrit of later 
dramatic writers, the Pali, or sacred language of 
the Buddhists in Ceylon, and some twenty mod- 
ern dialects spoken chiefly in the northern half 
of Hindustan, we have the first grand division of 
Aryan speech. The second or Iranic class com- 
prehends the Zend, the ancient Persian of the 
cuneiform inscriptions, the Parsi of Bombay, the 
Pushtu of Afghanistan, modern Persian, Ar- 
menian, Kurdish, and the Ossetian spoken in the 
Caucasus. Concerning these two grand divisions, 
we need only observe that the extremely close 
resemblance between Sanskrit and Zend would 
seem to indicate that the separation of the two 
occurred at a comparatively late date, though it 
would perhaps be difficult to suppose it later than 
two thousand years before Christ. It may have 
been a little before this that the western tribes of 
Aryans crossed the Volga and began the conquest 
of Europe. First appear to have come the Kelts, 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 95 


whose languages constitute the third great divis- 
ion. These languages diverge considerably from 
the common type, and were the latest to be recog- 
nized as Aryan in character,—a fact which is 
quite in harmony with the opinion that they were 
the first to branch off from the original stock. 
The Kelts have always been an important race, 
but their languages have not thriven in the 
world. . Keltic geographical names are scattered 
all over Europe, and in the eastern part such 
words as Dnieper, Don,and Danube testify to the 
former presence of the language in which don 
was a common name for water or river. The 
Kelts formed a large part of the populations of 
Spain and northern Italy, and a principal part of 
the populations of Gaul and Britain, when these 
countries were subjected to Roman dominion; and 
as late as the Christian era they were to be found 
in large numbers as far east as Bohemia. Since 
then they have been partly conquered and partly 
driven westward by Romans and Teutons, without 
ceasing to be conspicuous as a race; but their 
languages have sunk into comparative obscurity, 
and are fast disappearing. The Gauls, who showed 
such a remarkable aptitude for taking on the 
manners of their conquerors that by the fourth 
century their country was almost as thoroughly 


96 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Romanized as Italy itself, forgot their own lan- 
guage with wonderful ease. It was so completely 
trampled out by Latin that very scanty vestiges 
remain to show what it was, if we except geo- 
graphical names. At the present day two groups 
of Keltic languages remain: the Gaelic, still 
spoken in Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man ; 
and the Kymric, or old British, which survives in 
Welsh and in the dialect of Brittany. A third 
dialect of Kymric was formerly spoken in Corn- 
wall, but it died in 1770 with Dame Dolly Dent- 
reath. 

Concerning the fourth and fifth grand divisions 
of Aryan speech —the Italic and Hellenic — but 
little need be said. These languages are too il- 
lustrious to stand in need of much description. 
The relationship between them is closer than in 
the case of any other Aryan languages of differ- 
ent class, save the Zend and Sanskrit; and this 
close resemblance justifies the inference that the 
separation between Greeks and Italians was com- 
paratively recent. They would appear to have 
entered Europe somewhat later than the Kelts, 
but everything connected with their prehistoric 
career is extremely problematical. To the Hel- 
lenic class belong only two languages, — the un- 
cultivated Albanian and the Greek, which was ste- 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 97 


reotyped so early and so thoroughly by literary cul- 
ture that to the Athenian school-boy of to-day the 
history of Herodotos can hardly seem written in 
a foreign tongue. To the Italic class belong the 
ancient Umbrian and Oscan and the Latin, which 
still survives under the variously modified forms 
of Italian, French, Provencal, Spanish, Portuguese, 
Rumansch, and Wallachian. To the linguist the 
history of these Romanic dialects is peculiarly val- 
uable, as illustrating, with the aid of plentiful 
documents, a process of divergence somewhat 
similar to that which previously broke up the Old 
Aryan into different languages. 

The Teutons, whose languages form our sixth 
grand division, seem to have entered Europe after 
the tribes already mentioned. About Cesar’s time 
we find Teutons driving Kelts out of Germany, 
and threatening to overrun Gaul; but during 
most of classic antiquity the centre of Teutonism 
seems to have been farther east than Germany. 
The greater part of what is now European Turkey 
was occupied by Goths in the time of Herodotos, 
and for eight centuries afterwards. The ancient 
Thracians were Goths, according to Grimm, and 
so were the Getz. And since the Christian era 
Teutonic tribes appeared in what is now south- 


ern Russia. ‘The terrible irruption of non-Aryan 
Z 


98 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Huns from Asia, in the fifth century, drove these 
tribes westward, and brought them into collision 
with the Empire. Of the Gothic language noth- 
ing remains save a portion of a translation of the 
Bible, made by Ulfilas in the fourth century. 
The other branches of Teutonic speech — Scan- 
dinavian, High German, and Low German, of 
which our own English is the most important 
dialect — are too well known to require comment. 
The seventh and eighth grand divisions of Ar- 
yan language are the closely- related Lettic and 
Slavonic. The Lettic languages, like the Keltic, 
are fast dying out. Of Old Prussian, which has 
been dead for two centuries, nothing is now left 
save the Catechism of Albert of Brandenburg. 
Lettish and Lithuanian, of which the latter is re- 
markable for its strong resemblance to Sanskrit, 
are still spoken in the Baltic provinces of Russia. 
As for the Slavs, they appear in history north of 
the Black Sea about the time of Trajan, and be- 
gin to be frequently mentioned in the sixth cen- 
tury. Since then they have pushed westward far 
into the Teutonic domain, but have nowhere, save 
in Russia, retained political independence. Of the 
fifteen or more Slavonic languages, the old Bul- 
garian and the modern Russian, Polish, Bohemian, 
Croatian, and Serbian are of most importance. 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 99 


Looking thus over our modern linguistic Ar- 
yana, we see that in the Old World it pretty 
nearly covers the geograpliical area included be- 
tween the Ganges and the Atlantic Ocean. Small 
regions of non-Aryan speech, however, occur here 
and there within this area, and a brief glance at 
these will serve to increase the definiteness of our 
knowledge. 

Wherever non-Aryan languages are spoken 
within this Indo-European domain, it is for either 
one of two reasons. Such languages are spoken 
either by descendants of the aboriginal tribes, 
whom the invading Aryans overcame, or by de- 
scendants of non-Aryan invaders, who have pushed 
in at a later date, and secured for themselves a 
lodgment upon Aryan soil. Of the first class we 
find a few sporadic instances. The language vari- 
ously called the Bask, Euskarian, or Iberian, now 
spoken in the Asturias and about the Pyrenees, 
has no similarity whatever to the Aryan lan- 
cuages. It is spoken by the scanty remnant of a 
people who in immemorial antiquity seem to have 
been spread all over western Europe, but who 
were for the most part conquered and absorbed 
by the Keltic van of the Aryan invasion. The 
case may have been similar with the Iapygian 
and Etruskan, which were long ago trampled out 


100 Exeursions of an Evolutionist. 


in Italy by the Latin; but on this obscure point 
I would hardly venture an opinion. In northern 
Europe, Finnish, Esthonian, and Lappish are still 
spoken by races pushed into the corner by Teu- 
tons and Slavs. A perfect Babel of aboriginal 
dialects still exists in the inaccessible fastnesses 
of the Caucasus; and many of the highlands of 
India similarly shelter primitive non-Aryan tribes, 
whose forefathers refused to submit to Brahmanic 
oppression. It is a characteristic of such rem- 
nants of conquered speech to subsist only in out- 
of-the-way or undesirable corners. On the other 
hand, Turkish and Hungarian are foreign tongues 
brought into the Indo-European area by recent 
intruders. Both these languages belong to the 
Altaic, Turanian, or Tataric family, spoken by 
nomadic tribes all over northern Asia, and in- 
cluding in Europe the Finnish and its congeners 
above mentioned. The Hungarian has especially 
strong affinities with the Finnish, while the near- 
est relatives to Turkish are to be found about 
Khiva and Bokhara, in the Tataric region which 
Russia is so rapidly subjugating. 

We have now arrived at a tolerably correct 
idea of what is meant by the word Aryan. But 
one important point must not be overlooked. In 
its modern sense we have seen that the word is a 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 101 


linguistic term. It describes community of lan- 
guage. As we now use the word, Aryans are 
people who speak Aryan, or Indo-European, lan- 
guages. It is only in a secondary way that this 
word can be used as an ethnological term, describ- 
ing community of race. We are so accustomed 
to consider language a mark of race that it is dif- 
ficult to avoid using linguistic epithets in an eth- 
nological sense, and a good deal of confused think- 
ing sometimes results from this. We have above 
alluded to the Aryans as a dominant race, which 
long since overran Europe and is now spreading 
over America; yet it is easy to see that we have 
no means of determining how far the various 
peoples who speak Aryan languages are of com- 
mon descent. It is never safe to use language as 
a direct criterion of race, for speech and blood 
depend on different sets of circumstances, which 
do not always vary together. We of the English 
race have much Keltic blood in our veins, but very 
few Keltisms in our speech ; while, on the other 
hand, with a vocabulary nearly half made up of 
Latin words, we have either no Roman blood in 
our veins, or so little as not to be worth mention- 
ing. During the past twenty-five years French- 
men have had a good deal to say about the “ Latin 
race.’ There could hardly be a more flagrant 


102 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


instance of the perversion of a linguistic name to 
ethnological purposes. In reality, even in Ce- 
sar’s time, the dominant tribes of Latium had be- 
come well-nigh absorbed in the non-Latin, though 
kindred, Italic races which had succumbed to 
them. After Gaul had been conquered, it learned 
Roman manners, but without receiving any very 
large infusion of Roman blood. In point of race 
the French are Kelts, with a considerable sub- 
stratum of Iberian and superstratum of Teutonic 
blood, — the former chiefly in the south, the lat- 
ter chiefly in the north. Between Frenchmen, 
Spaniards, and northern Italians there is, indeed, 
a close ethnic affinity ; but this is because they 
are all to a great extent Kelts, not because they 
have all learned to speak dialects of Latin. 

Now if we pursue the matter a little farther, 
and inquire what we mean by saying that these 
three peoples are in great part Keltic, we. shall 
find that a similar qualification is needed. Ob- 
viously, we mean that they are Keltic in so far 
as they are descended from people who formerly 
spoke Keltic languages. Our knowledge of the 
prehistoric career of the Kelts is too small to ad- 
mit of our meaning. more than this. In just the 
same way, when we say that Spaniards and Eng- 
lishmen and Russians are akin to each other as 


Our Aryan Forefathers. — 103 


being Aryans, we can only mean that they are 
in great part descended from people who spoke 
Aryan languages. 

There can be little doubt, however, that all 
races which have long wandered and fought have 
become composite to a degree past deciphering. 
And, however mixed may have been the blood of 
the Aryan-speaking invaders of Europe, it re- 
mains undeniable that the possession of a common 
language by such great multitudes of people im- 
plies a very long period of time, during which 
their careers must have been moulded by circum- 
stances in common. It implies common habits 
of thought and a common civilization, such as it 
was. And this inference is fully confirmed by a 
comparative study of the myths and superstitions, 
as well as of the primitive legal ideas and social 

customs of the various parts of the Indo-European 
world. For this reason I think we are justified 
in speaking of the Aryan race just as we speak, 
without error, of the English race, though we 
know that many race elements have combined 
their energies in the great work of English civil- 
ization. I do not say, either, that we may not 
fairly speak of a Latin race, provided we bear in 
mind the limitations of the’phrase; the objection 
is not so much to the phrase as to the loose way 


104 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


in which it is customarily used and the absurd in- 
ferences which are often grounded on it. 

The ethnologist, who deals with skulls and stat- 
ures and complexions, may venture much farther, 
sometimes, than the linguist, — though perhaps 
the greater length of his excursions may not al- 
ways compensate for their comparative insecurity. 
It is quite open to the ethnologist to hold that 
the successive Aryan swarms which colonized Eu- 
rope were like each other in physiological char- 
acteristics, as well as in language and general 
culture. Differences of complexion, when well 
marked, are among the most conspicuous differ- 
ences which distinguish individuals, groups, or 
races from one another; and they are, moreover, 
apt to be correlated with deep-seated physiologi- 
cal differences of temperament. In all countries 
peopled by Europeans there are to be found two 
contrasted complexions, the blonde and brunette ; 
endlessly complicated and varied by intermar- 
riage, but nevertheless in their extreme examples 
so strikingly different that a stranger might well 
be excused for considering them as marks of dif- 
ference in race. In populations that have long 
been stationary and isolated from foreign intru- 
sion we do not find such differences of complexion. 
We do not find them in China or Japan, or among 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 105 


the Samoyeds, or Kafirs, or Pacific islanders, or 
among the Arabs. It appears to be only among 
the Indo-European nations that they occur side 
by side in the same community, as an every-day 
matter. Now we may account for this coexist- 
ence and intermingling of contrasted complexions 
by supposing that the various peoples of Europe 
have arisen from the intermixing in various pro- 
portions of a race that was entirely blonde with a 
race that was entirely. brunette. We know that 
the Bask or Iberian race, which once seems to 
have possessed a great part of Europe, was, and 
still is, uniformly dark complexioned. We may, 
accordingly, suppose that the Aryan-speaking in- 
vaders were uniformly light. The effect of the 
earlier invasions of Kelts, Italians, and Greeks 
would be to crowd the dark-skinned Iberians into 
the three southern peninsulas, into western Gaul, 
and into the British Isles. The next step would 
be the conquest of all these regions, followed by 
extensive intermarriage and the general adoption 
of Aryan speech. In the remotest corner of all, 
cooped up between the Pyrenees and the Bay of 
Biscay, — here, if anywhere, a remnant of the 
aboriginal population might preserve its purity 
of race and its primitive speech. As a result of 


these proceedings, the Aryan-speaking peoples of 


x 


106 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Greece, Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain would 
show a mixture of light and dark complexions, 
and wherever the invaders had been much less 
numerous than the aborigines the brunettes would 
predominate. But now, where the later swarms 
of Teutons and Slavs came pouring in, the case 
would have been somewhat altered for them. 
Their conquerings and interminglings would take 
place not with a pure-blooded race of dark abo- 
rigines, but with the mixed race which had re- 
sulted from the foregoing events. One conse- 
quence would be an increased percentage of fair 
complexions in western countries overrun by Teu- 
tons, especially in England, northern France, and 
northern Italy. Another consequence would be 
the partial darkening of Teutons and Slavs by 
intermixture with Kelto-Iberian predecessors in 
southern Germany and Austria. Wherever, on 
the other hand, the new-comers were left pretty 
much to themselves, as in northern Germany, 
central Russia, and Scandinavia, we should find 
the auburn hair and blue eyes of the old Aryan 
still in the ascendant. 

This very ingenious hypothesis, which is de- 
fended by such a cautious ethnologist as Pro- 
fessor Huxley,! accounts remarkably well for the 


1 On Some Fixed Points n British Ethnology, Critiques and Ad- 
dresses, London, 1873, pp. 167-180. 


Our Aryan Forefathers. 107 


actual distribution of light and dark complexions 1! 
throughout Europe. It agrees so well with the 
facts before us that we can hardly do better than 
adopt it as a provisional explanation, subject to 
such revision and amendment as may turn out to 
be necessary. But if we thus admit the existence 
of a primitive Aryan race that was physically ho- 
mogeneous, it must be remembered that we admit 
it on very different grounds from those on which 
were based the demonstration of a primitive ho- 
mogeneous Aryan language. The original com- 
munity of language is a point on which we have 
reached absolute certainty ; the community of 
race, in any other sense than that of long-contin- 
ued community of language and culture, is largely 
a matter of speculation. 

Concerning the people and the series of historic 
events of which Aryana Vaéjo was the legendary 
starting-point, we have thus obtained much inter- 
esting and trustworthy information by the aid of 
the comparative method of inquiry. For be it 


1 We may go still farther in our discrimination between the abo- 
riginal Iberians and the invading Aryans. It is probable that, along 
with black hair, black eyes, and brunette skins, the Iberians were 
distinguished by short stature, slight and compact frames, and long 
heads; while, on the other hand, along with their yellow hair, blue 
eyes, and blonde skins, the Aryans wéuld seem to have been distin- 
guished by tall stature, massive frames, and broad heads. See the 
preceding paper. 


109 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


observed that the results so far set down have 
been reached, for the most part, by a mere com- 
parative survey of the various regions of the lin- 
guistic and ethnical field with which we have been 
called upon to deal. We have in this way ob- 
tained quite an accurate conception of what is 
meant when we speak of the Aryans. But as 
yet we have dealt only with the veriest rudiments 
of the subject. Nor have we as yet gone far to- 
ward illustrating the vast and rich resources of 
the comparative method. To be able to depict 
the prehistoric culture of the Aryan-speaking 
people, to interpret their mythical conceptions, 
and to unfold the other remarkable truths that 
lie latent in the variety of their speech, — this is 
indeed a fruitful achievement. But to show how 
this has been brought about requires a separate 
and more detailed form of exposition. 


July, 1876. 


TV: 
WHAT WE LEARN FROM OLD ARYAN WORDS. 


THE discovery of the Aryan family of lan- 
guages, as elucidated in the preceding paper, was 
the first and most conspicuous consequence of the 
zeal for Sanskrit studies which ensued upon the 
English conquest of India. Surely, this in itself 
was no small thing. It was in every way stimu- 
lating and suggestive to have detected a specific 
bond of relationship, in speech and in culture, be- 
tween such different peoples as the English and 
the Hindus, who had not previously been sus- 
pected of possessing anything in common save 
their common humanity. It had indeed been 
long ago maintained that languages the most 
diverse in superficial aspect were descended from 
a common source, but such views were based 
merely on a languid assent to an ill-understood 
tradition, and no one had the least conception of 
the proper method of tracing linguistic affinity. 
Down to the beginning of the present century the 
labours of etymologists had all the crudeness of 


110 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


astrological speculations, or of barbarian theories 
of the universe. And no wonder, since attention 
had been chiefly directed toward Hebrew, a lan- 
guage entirely unrelated to those of Europe, so 
that any attempt to explain the latter by a ref- 
erence to the former could end only in mental 
confusion. It was a very striking discovery that 
was made when it was proved that though no 
likeness whatever exists between the European 
tongues and Hebrew, yet the closest similarity is 
manifest between these tongues and a much more 
remote Asiatic language. ‘The completion of this 
discovery was no less striking when it was shown 
that while linguistic relationship can be clearly 
traced, according to fixed rules of inference, 
among all the various members of the Indo-Euro- 
pean group, yet the moment we step outside of 
this group we can neither detect relationship nor 
establish rules of inference, but have before us a 
new set of facts, quite incongruous with the old 
ones. Such a contrast was just what was needed 
in order to indicate what the true signs of lin- 
euistic relationship are, and thus our whole men- 
tal horizon was shifted, as far as concerns the 
study of language. In the act of establishing the 
existence of our own great family of speech, scien- 
tific methods of comparison were gradually worked 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 111 


out, and the results of this have been far-reaching 
enough. 

In the present paper I propose briefly to notice 
two departments of study which have been actu- 
ally created by the comparative investigation of 
Aryan languages. Under the first head I shall 
call attention to some characteristics of scientific 
etymology ; under the second, we shall get a 
glimpse of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans. 

First, as regards etymology, we need consider 
only a few facts which show how systematic and 
orderly inference has been substituted for what 
once was mere random guess-work. In compar- 
ing different languages, similarity and dissimilar- 
ity are still, as formerly, the principal tests of re- 
lationship; but in applying these tests we are 
strictly limited by rules which formerly were 
ignored. Once a vague resemblance between the 
vocabularies of two languages was considered 
sufficient ground for assigning them to the same 
class ; now even a close and sustained likeness in 
vocabulary is not enough, unless it be accom- 
panied by likeness in grammatical forms. Thus, 
the possession of innumerable Latin words, such as 
opinion, reflect, admire, umbrella, honour, colour, 
contemplate, criminal, etc. does not make Eng- 
lish a language of the Italic class, nor does it 


112 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


even show any original kinship between English 
and Latin. Such words have simply been adopted 
from Latin, just as ennut and naiveté have been 
adopted from modern French, and such borrow- 
ing and lending as this can go on between any 
two languages. It is just as easy for us to use 
Arabic words like alcohol and cipher as if Arabic 
were a kindred language. Nearly half the vo- 
cabulary of modern Persian has in this way come 
to be made up of Arabic words, yet there is no 
kinship whatever between Persian and Arabic. 
But while mere vocabulary does not determine 
the place of a language, the peculiar style of mak- 
ing sentences does determine it. Though more 
than half the words we use are Latin, English is 
not an Italic language, because we cannot make 
a single sentence out of Latin materials alone. 
English, on the other hand, is a Teutonic lan- 
guage, because we cannot make a single sentence 
without introducing some Teutonic shibboleth. 
Suppose we say, ‘“‘ Pantheism desecrates Deity :” 
here we seem to have simply one Greek word fol- 
lowed by two Latin words; but the Teutonic 
shibboleth comes out in the terminal s of ‘ des- 
ecrates,’’ which is the peculiar shape in which 
English has retained the old ‘Teutonic verb-end- 
ing th, as it would appear in ‘desecrateth.” 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 118 


Again, if I say, “I can go to Boston,” my phra- 
seology is purely Teutonic; but if, ike Dr. John- 
son, I have a weakness for big words, and say, 
“Tt is possible for this individual to traverse the 
vast area intervening between this locality and 
Boston,” I have not yet escaped the boundary of 
Teutonic speech ; for although I have introduced 
seven Latin words of secondary importance, yet 
the little words which enable me to knit the sen- 
tence together are still Teutonic, as before. So 
when we say, “I have, thou havest or hast, he 
haveth, hath, or has,” the Teutonic shibboleth 
comes out in this style of inflection. In short, it 
is easy enough for us to acquire new words, but 
we cannot abandon our habits of sentence-making 
without giving up our language altogether. Now 
the demonstrated community of the Aryan lan- 
guages rests not merely on their possession of a 
common vocabulary, but on their retention, in 
various degrees, of grammatical forms originally 
common to all. We can hardly find a better in- 
stance than in the conjugation of the verb just 
alluded to: 1 — 


SAT OT ANT 2 2 
Gothic, haba, habai-s, habai-th; haba-m, habai-th, haba-nd. 
Pers. -m, -d; -m, -d, -nd. 
Kelt. -in, de -m, -d, +t. 


1 Whitney, Study of Language, p. 199. 
8 


114 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Lith. -mi, -si, -ti; -me, -te, -ti. 
Slav. -mi, -si, -ti; -mu, -te, -nti. 
Lat. habeo, habe-s, habe-t; habe-mus, habe-tis, habe-nt. 
Gr. -mi, “Si, -ti; -mes, -te, nti. 
Skr. -mi, -si, -ti; -masi, -tha, -nti. 


Community of vocabulary is, however, a very 
important matter, when rightly considered. It is 
true that any language may borrow a large pro- 
portion of its words from an entirely alien source, 
as Persian has borrowed from Arabic. But in 
comparing the various forms of Aryan speech we 
have found a criterion which enables us to dis- 
tinguish between the words that are alike in two 
languages because one has borrowed them from 
the other, and words that are alike because they 
are simply modified forms of the same aboriginal 
word. This supremely important point can be 
here treated but roughly; yet I hope that, with a 
few illustrations, it may be rendered intelligible. 

One of the chief reasons for the divergence of 
a language, originally uniform, into two or more 
distinct dialects is to be found in those differences 
of pronunciation which arise, one hardly knows 
how, in different localities. ‘The most curious 
feature of these differences is that they are often 
so extremely systematic. Every one has heard of 
the Englishman who inquired, “If a hattch and a 
ho and a har and a hess and a he don’t spell ’orse, 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 115 


what in thunder does it spell, you know?” The 
infallible accuracy with which the cockney omits 
his A where it belongs, and supplies it where it 
does not belong, has always excited my wonder- 
ing admiration. Were there any caprice in the 
usage, it would seem less marvellous. But so un- 
erring is the instinct that when a friend of mine 
once purposely spelled his name out as U-t-t-o-n 
he was correctly announced by the waiter as Mr. 
Hurron! Is not this what our High German 
friends, with equal felicity, and in illustration of 
a similar point, would call a very eggsdraorti- 
nary zirgumsdance? Yet after all, so far from be- 
ing extraordinary, such phenomena occur so regu- 
larly in a comparison of the Aryan languages that 
they have been reduced to a systematic form of 
expression in what is known as “Grimm’s law.” 
Take, for example, the word “father.” This is 
the same in all the Aryan languages, save for 
the differences in pronunciation which make the 
German say vater, while in Latin, Greek, and 
Sanskrit we have pater. On the other hand, 
brother, in German bruder, appears in Latin and 
Sanskrit as frater or bhratar, in Greek as ¢parnp, 
the member of a brotherhood or fraternity. That 
is, where we pronounce anf the Greeks, Romans, 
and Hindus pronounced a p, but where we pro- 


116 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


nounce a 6 they pronounce an f, or something like 
it. Similarly, where we say gard-en the Greek 
said xépros and the Latin hort-us ; and our goose, 
which appears more fully in the German gans, is 
found in Greek as xn, in Sanskrit as hansa, in 
Bohemian as hus, the name of the celebrated 
martyr. But conversely, where we say heart the 
Greek said xap5 and the old Roman cord, and 
where the German says haupt the Roman said 
caput. That is, a Teutonic g answers to a Greek, 
Latin, Sanskrit, or Slavonic h, but a Teutonic h 
answers to a & in the latter languages. Now this 
group of facts is not precisely analogous to the 
cockney’s transposition of his aspirates, but it is 
certainly very similar, and it is equally myste- 
rious. Why this curious alteration of sounds 
should have occurred so systematically, and on so 
great a scale, no one has ever succeeded in ex- 
plaining. It is none the less to the purpose, how- 
ever, that it has occurred. Although an empirical 
rule, Grimm’s law is nevertheless a well-estab- 
lished rule, and in the study of Aryan etymology 
it has to be taken into account at every step. It 
is easy to see what a revolution the establishment 
of this law has worked in our methods of com- 
paring words. Formerly the etymologist looked, 
though in a vague, indiscriminate way, for mere 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 111 


resemblances; and this was natural enough. But 
now a too strict resemblance sometimes becomes 
a suspicious circumstance. The Greek word for 
‘‘whole” is dAos, and what could be more plausi- 
ble than to suppose it identical with the English 
word? But here Grimm’s law makes us sus- 
picious. We ought not to expect a Greek to pro- 
nounce “whole” like an Englishman, any more 
than we ought to expect to hear a cockney say 
“horse.” What the cockney says is “ orse,” 
and what the Greek would naturally say is not 
dos, but «oAos; and in point of fact it has been 
otherwise proved that our suspicion is here well 
grounded, —the resemblance between the English 
and Greek words is purely accidental. Mere re- 
semblance is thus a very treacherous guide in ety- 
mology. In French we have louer, ‘‘ to hire,” and 
louer, ‘to praise.” Some philological dreamer 
tried to show that these words might be con- 
nected, because you praise your lodgings or horses 
when you wish to induce some one to hire them ! 
In fact, the one word has been clipped down from 
Latin locare, “to hire,” and the other from Latin 


laudare, **to praise.” 


In striking contrast to this, 
let us observe how two English words, pen and 
feather, are’ closely connected in origin, in spite 


of their entire dissimilarity. There was an Old 


118 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Aryan verb pat, “to fly,” which still appears in the 
Greek wérouat. There were also such suffixes as 
tra and na, denoting the instrument with which 
an act is accomplished. Pat-tra thus meant “a 
wing,” and a Hindu might perhaps thus under- 
stand it ; but in Gothic we find fath-thra, and in 
English feather, just as Grimm’s law has taught 
us to expect. -Pat-na had the same meaning, and 
passed into old Latin as pes-na, which later Latin 
clipped down to penna, a wing cr feather, and 
finally the quill-feather with which you write. In 
these days we have applied the word to little im- 
plements of gold or steel which have nothing to 
do with flying, unless the soaring of Pegasus be 
supposed to keep up the association of ideas. 
This example of pen and feather is a very trite 
one, but I have cited it’ because it further illus- 
trates a very important point, toward which the 
argument has been for some time tending. Look- 
ing at these two, words, with reference to the 
whole extant Aryan vocabulary, we find that 
their very forms disclose their past history. We 
see that the word feather, which has undergone 
the change of pronunciation indicated in Grimm’s 
law, in common with Teutonic words in general, 
is a genuine Teutonic word, and appears in the 
English language to-day because it has always be 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 119 


longed to English speech. But the word pen, 
which has not undergone this change, shows thus 
on its very face that it has not grown up in com- 
pany with Teutonic words, but has been adopted 
at a recent date from another branch of the Aryan 
family. The changes formulated in Grimm’s law 
took place in early times, long before people had 
begun to think critically about their pronuncia- 
tion or their diction. When we adopt Latin words 
in modern times, we do not refashion them in ac- 
cordance with the twisted pronunciation of our 
barbaric ancestors, but we take them as they are. 
From pater we take paternal, without trying to 
make it sound like its equivalent, fatherly. ‘Thus 
we arrive at a safe criterion for distinguishing be- 
tween words which have been passed about from 
one Aryan language to another, in the course of 
recent intercommunication of culture, and words 
wh’ sh have descended, with divers modifications, 
from a common original. Words of the latter 
sort, where they exist in different classes of Aryan 
speech, have obviously been handed down from 
primeval times; they must have formed part of 
the vocabulary employed in Aryana Vaéjo, and 
the most convincing proof of their genuineness is 
to be found in the peculiax nature of the wear and 
tear they have undergone. To recur to an ex- 


120 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ample previously cited, the existence of such Eng- 
lish words as colour, opinion, admire, etc., not only 
fails to prove kinship between English and Latin, 
but it does not even prove that English is an 
Aryan language, since these words are manifest 
importations, and the case of Persian and Arabic 
shows that nothing is easier than for one lan- 
guage to adopt half its current words from an- 
other that has no relationship with it. But on 
the other hand, when we compare such words as 
corn with Lat. granum ; horn with Lat. cornu; 
who and what with Lat. quis and quid, Skr. kas 
and kad; queen with Gr. yun; beech with Lat. 
Fagus; doom with Gr. gus; tear with Skr. dar; 
bear with Skr. bhar, Gr. and Lat. fero ; tooth 
(Goth. tunthus) with Zend and Skr. dant, Lat. 
dens,— when we find a thousand such eases of 
systematic divergence, we get clear proof of the 
original identity of the English vocabulary with 
the others brought into the comparison. For the 
divergences in themselves are incompatible with 
any theory of modern borrowing and lending, 
while the extreme regularity of their recurrence is 
explicable only as the result of common processes 
operating on common materials. 

The symmetry of consonant-changes throughout 
the Aryan languages is at first sight a wonderful 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 121 


phenomenon, and the tracing of correlated words 
in accordance with such laws as Grimm’s never 
ceases to be a fascinating study. The laws of 
vowel-change — whereby, for example, the Skr. 
matar corresponds to Lat. mater, Gr. pity, Gaelic 
mathair, Germ. mutter, and Eng. mother — are 
hardly less interesting. But to do justice to such 
a subject as etymology would require much more 
time than we have at our disposal. In the pres- 
ent paper I have not attempted to make anything 
like a full statement even of Grimm’s law, but 
have given only such scanty illustrations as may 
serve to render the outline of the argument in- 
telligible while I go on to point out one of the 
largest of the results that have come from this 
minute study of consonants and vowels. From 
this minute study the laws of the permutation of 
words have been wrought into such a complete 
and harmonious system that it has become pos- 
sible to reconstruct large portions of the common 
Aryan mother-tongue by comparing together the 
curiously modified forms of its modern descend- 
ants. ‘The problem is quite similar to what it 
would be if classical Latin were extinct, and we 
were required to reproduce as much as possible of 
it from an elaborate comparison of the vocabula- 
ries and grammatical forms of French, Spanish, 


122 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Italian, and their allied modern dialects. Such a 
task would no doubt be delicate and difficult; but 
there is also no doubt that a great deal of good 
Latin could be reconstructed in this way. The 
restoration of the Aryan mother-tongue seems at 
first sight a still more formidable task ; but it is 
a task for which we have also more abundant 
materials in the wider variation among Aryan 
words as compared with Romanic words. Thus 
by a comparison of French mots with Span. mes 
and Ital. mese, knowing besides the general hab- 
its of the Romanic languages, we might proba- 
bly infer the Lat. menszs as the common original 
of the three; but on looking over the whole 
Aryan field, and comparing Lat. mensis with 
English month, Gr. py, Lith. menesis, O. H. G. 
manot, and Skr. masa, we arrive with even 
stronger probability at the Old Aryan mansa as 
the only form which could have given rise to all 
these. 

During the last twenty years it may almost be 
said that the great work of Aryan philology has 
been the reconstruction of the Old Aryan mother- 
tongue. At least the comparative researches that 
have been made have owed their chief interest to 
their bearing on this problem. In philology, as 
in zodlogy and botany, questions of classification 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 123 


have become irretrievably implicated with ques- 
tions of genealogical kinship. Whether we are 
considering consonants and vowels, or the case- 
endings of nouns, or the syntax of moods and 
tenses, it is impossible to describe accurately the 
relations of the several Aryan languages to one 
another without involving a perpetual reference 
to the common original from which these lan- 
guages sprang. The first noteworthy attempts 
at reconstructing the mother-tongue were made 
by the great philologist August Schleicher, who 
by way of giving a popular illustration of his 
abstruse results, once wrote a little fable in Old 
Aryan. This jeu d’esprit of Schleicher’s has been 
so often alluded to that I am tempted to quote it 
here, with an English translation. To any clas- 
sical scholar, who has also a slight acquaintance 
with Sanskrit and Gothic, the sense must shine 
so clearly through the Old Aryan words that the 
translation will hardly be needed. 


Avis akvasas ka. 


Avis, yasmin varna na a ast, dadarka akvams, 
tam, vagham garum vaghantam, tam, bharam 
magham, tam, manum aku bharantam. Avis 
akvabhyams a vavakat: kard aghnutai mai v¥ 
danti manum akvams agantam. 


124 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Akvasas a vavakant: krudhi avai, kard 
aghnutai vividvant-svas: manus patis varnam 
avisams karnauti svabhyam gharmam vastram 
avibhyams ka varna na asti. 

Tat kukruvants avis agram a bhugat.! 


The Sheep and the Horses. 


A sheep, whose wool had been shorn, looked 
upon the horses as they drew a heavy wagon, 
bore a great load, or swiftly carried a man. 
The sheep said to the horses, “It grieves my 
heart to see Man driving horses.” 

The horses said, ‘* Listen, sheep; it grieves our 
hearts to think how the despot Man makes his 
warm garment of sheep’s wool, while the sheep 
goes woolless.”’ 

On hearing this, the sheep quit the field. 


In the simple diction of this little apologue, 
there can be no doubt that we have a very close 
approach to the words that our Aryan forefathers 
would have understood in the days before they 
had as yet invaded Europe and mixed with the 
swart Iberian, whom — physically though not 
linguistically — we also reckon as our ancestor. 


1 Kuhn and Schleicher, Beitrdge zur vergleichenden Sprachfor- 
schung, v. 207. 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 125 


But with respect to such attempts at reproduc- 
ing the Aryan mother-tongue in its concrete real- 
ity, there is one thing which we must always bear 
in mind. Granting that a word A and a word B 
both existed in Old Aryan, in the time of the 
Spracheinheit, we do not know but A may have 
become obsolete before B came into general use. 
So that, if we were to try to write out a long 
story after Schleicher’s example, though each in- 
dividual word might be correctly reproduced, we 
should run great risk of writing an Old Aryan 
style as anomalous as would be the style of a 
writer of hypothetical English who should mix 
up in one and the same sentence the diction of 
Chaucer, of Dryden, and of Longfellow. It is 
difficult, at present. to see how chronological con- 
siderations can be applied to the vocabulary of 
Old Aryan, in the absence of that kind of historic 
evidence which written records or inscriptions 
alone can furnish. In the last resort, compara- 
tive philology is an historical science. Though it 
can, within a limited range, perform wonderful 
feats of inference, quite comparable with such as 
are achieved by the physical sciences, yet after 
all, the tether by which it may stray from its his- 
toric base is not a long one. ~The science of lan- 
guage must always be studied mainly by the help 
of documentary evidence. 


126 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Yet while this chronological difficulty would 
seem to render hopeless the accurate restitution 
of the Aryan mother-tongue as a whole, we can 
none the less restore or reconstruct individual Old 
Aryan words with a fair approach to accuracy. 
And a very extensive Old Aryan vocabulary has 
already been thus obtained, as we may see in the 
three goodly octavos of Fick’s great dictionary, 
in which a primitive Aryan warrior — if we could 
first resuscitate him and then teach him to read 
— would no doubt find himself more or less at 
home.! 

In no respect do these philological inquiries 
appear more interesting than in the hght which 
they throw: upon the prehistoric civilization of 
our Aryan-speaking forefathers. No historic rec- 
ord, not even a vague tradition, is preserved of 
the time when the blue-eyed ancestors of Kelt, 
Greek, Roman, and Teuton dwelt in a single 
community with the ancestors of Persian and 
Hindu. We have no clue even to the date of this 
epoch of common Aryanism, though we may very 
fairly allow for it perhaps three or four thousand 
years before the Christian era. Even the oldest 
Aryan legends, as those of the Vendidad, pre- 


1 Fick, Vergleichendes Worterbuch der Indogermanischen Spra-~ 
chen. 3d edition, Goettingen, 1874-76. 3 vols. 8vo. 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 127 


serve only a dim reference to a time when the 
Indo-Persian branch of the family had not yet 
become divided. Yet concerning the degree of 
culture reached in those remote times, so far 
antedating all conscious historic tradition, the un- 
conscious record of language has given us some 
trustworthy information. From the seemingly 
dry study of consonants and vowels an easy pro- 
cess of inference opens up to us, as with a magi- 
cian’s wand, a fascinating picture of the life and 
pursuits and habits of thought of the people from 
whose long-perished form of speech our vowels 
and consonants are derived. 

Wonderful as this may seem, what is simpler, 
when we have once ascertained that a certain 
word belonged to the Old Aryan language, than 
the inference that the word was used to describe 
some object or express some thought? And 
where the meaning of the word has remained 
uniform throughout all the vicissitudes of pro- 
nunciation and inflection to which it has been 
subjected, what better guarantee do we need that 
the word was used with the same meaning in the 
mother-tongue? It requires no extraordinary in- 
sight, when one has mastered the rules of com- 
parative grammar, to see that the primitive Aryan 
called his nearest relatives by the names patar, 


128 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


matar, bhratar, svasar, sunu, and dhugatar ; or 
that when he learned to count up to ten he said 
something like aina, dva, tri, katvar, pankan, 
ksvaks, saptan, aktan, navan, dakan. 

Proceeding in this way, we find abundant evi- 
dence that the early Aryans had outgrown the 
nomad stage of civilization and acquired settled 
habitations, not merely in villages, but even in 
fortified towns. The Lat. domus reappears, with 
hardly any change, in Gr. déuos, Skr. dama, Ar- 
men. dohm, Irish daimh, and Russ. domu, always 
with the meaning of ‘‘house.” In the Teutonic 
class we do not find this word in precisely the 
same sense; but we have the Germ. zimmer, “a 
room,” connected with Goth. timrjan, * to build,” 
and Eng. timber, or “ building material ;” and 
these words, compared with Gr. déuew, carry us 
back to Old Aryan dam, “to build,” so that the 
domus of our forefathers was not a mere hole in 
the rocks, but a dwelling-place put together by 
the art of the carpenter. In Greek the more 
common word for house is otkos, originally Fotxos, 
‘‘y place that one goes into.” This word runs 
through all the Aryan languages, but the original 
sense of “entering”’ is forgotten, and it only 
means ‘* a place where one lives,” — sometimes a 
house, but more generally a village. Thus we 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 129 


have Skr. vega, Zend vig, Russ. vest and Polish 
wies, Lat. vicus (whence the diminutive vicula, 
villa, village), Irish fich, Kymric gwic, Goth. weths, 
Eng. wick. The Old Norse language shows a 
curious deviation from this general agreement in 
meaning; for whereas the word generally de- 
scribes an abode on the land, to the sea-roving 
Norseman a wick was a creek or sheltered bay 
serving as a station for ships, and hence their fa- 
mous name of Vikings or ‘men of the fjord.” So, 
while the ending wick or wich is very common 
in old English names of inland towns, it occurs 
frequently also on the British coasts in the Norse 
sense, as in Sandwich and Berwick, favourite sta- 
tions for pirates. But with this characteristic 
divergence, the generally uniform significance of 
the word, in languages so widely scattered, points 
clearly to the existence of village communities 
among the prehistoric Aryans. The various forms 
of the English word town are equally instructive, 
though not quite so numerous. The Old English 
form tun has its counterpart in Old German zun, 
“an inclosed or fortified place,” with which the 
modern German zaun, “a hedge,” is connected. 
Now, in accordance with Grimm’s law, we find 
Armenian dun, “a house,” Kymric din, ‘a for- 


tress,” Irish dun, a “fortress” or “camp” or 
9 


130 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


“walled town.’ This Keltic form appears in 
many geographical names, such as Zhun, in 
Switzerland; Lug-dun-um on the Rhone, now 
Lyons ; Lug-dun-um in Holland, now Leyden ; 
Dun-keld, the “ fort of the Kelts;” Dum-barton, 
the * fort of the Britons; Dundee, London, Clar- 
endon, etc. In the remote Himalayas the same 
word reoccurs in the names of hill fortresses, such 
as Kjarda Dhun, Dehra Dhun, etc. ; and again 
it is a fair inference that where a word turns up 
in so many parts of the Aryan domain with the 
very same determinations of meaning, it must 
have belonged to the primitive vocabulary of the 
race. So that our forefathers would appear to 
have been acquainted not only with houses and 
villages, but also with some kind of walled towns. 

The name of the rampart with which such forti- 
fied inclosures were surrounded was also contained. 
in the Old Aryan vocabulary. From the old root 
val or var, to ** protect ” or “ surround,” we have 
Skr. varana, Old Germ. wari, Pol. warownia, Lat. 
vallum, Lith. wolas, Irish fal, Kymric gwal, Eng. 
wall. ‘The partition wall of a house, on the other 
hand, is more properly described by a root which 
in Sanskrit seems to be applied to wicker-work, 
but which in the European tongues appears, with 
hardly any variation either in sound or sense, 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 181 


as Lat. murus, Lith. muras, Old Germ. mura, 
modern Germ. mauer, Irish, Kymric, Old Eng., 
and Pol. mur. The name for “ roof ” is similarly 
ubiquitous: in Skr. we have sthag, ‘to cover,” in 
Lith. stogas,“ a roof,” in Gr. oréyos, a “ roof” or 
“ house,”’ and oréyw, “to cover;” but the word 
appears about as often in Greek as téyos, with the 
initial letter dropped ; and so in Irish we find teg, 
‘6a, house,” in Lat. tego and tectum, in Old Eng. 
thecan, in Eng. deck and thatch. In door there 
has been even less variation than this: Skr. has 
dvar, and also dur in the Vedas; Zend dvara, 
Pers. dar, Gr. Ovpa, O. H. G. tura, Goth. daur, 
Old Eng. duru, Irish and Welsh dor; the Lithu- 
anian has lost the singular, but retains the plu- 
ral durrys for folding-doors. The word meant 
originally “that which obstructs or keeps out.” 
Another old name for the door, which appears in 
Skr. as arara, has been preserved in Europe only 
in the Irish oraz, a “ porch” or “ vestibule,” and 
Welsh ortel. This latter is one of the very few 
Keltic words to be found in English, where it has 
become the name of a kind of bay-window. 
Among the Aryan words for “window” there 
is no such identity, though there is a most cu- 
rious similarity in the metaphors by which they 
have been constructed. In Sanskrit the window 


132 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


is grhaksha, or ‘“‘ the eye of the house,” and a big 
round window is called gavaksha, a compound of 


b) 


gau, “cow,” and aksha, “eye,” which is about 
equivalent to our expression ‘ bull’s-eye.” The 
Slavonic languages have okno, from oko, ** an eye,” 
while Gothic has augadauro and O. H. G. auga- 
tora, or ** eye-door.” ‘The meaning of our English 
word is not so immediately apparent, but in one of 
our nearest relatives, the Danish, it occurs as vin- 
due, and in Old Norse this was vindauga, that is, 
“an eye or hole for the wind to blow through.” 
These coincidences are interesting as showing how 
easily and naturally the same association of ideas 
may occur to different people, for these words have 
been independently formed. Whether we are en- 
titled to infer from this that the Aryan mother- 
tongue had no word for window, and that there- 
fore the people who spoke it lighted and aired 
their houses only through the door-way, it is not 
easy to decide. It is very unsafe to rest a con- 
clusion upon negative evidence. The Old Aryans 
certainly might have had a name for window 
which among various tribes came to be supplanted 
by various other expressions. Accordingly we can 
only say that, while we are perfectly sure that 
they had doors, it is quite uncertain, so far as phi. 
lology goes, whether they had windows or not. 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 183 


And in general, while the occurrence of the same 
indigenous name for any object, throughout the 
different classes of Indo-European speech, is suffi- 
cient proof that the primitive Aryans knew and 
named the object, on the other hand, the non- 
existence of such a common name raises only a 
negative presumption, which we have seldom any 
further means for testing. 

The ancient Aryan gained a livelihood chiefly 
from rearing cattle and tilling the ground. The 
names of our principal domestic animals are found 
in all parts of the Indo-European territory. The 
various Teutonic terms, cow, ku, chuo, reappear 
with the proper change of guttural in Lettish géws, 
Pers. gdw, Armen. gov, Zend gao and gava, Skr. 
gaus, gava, and gu. A peculiar twist, by which 
a labial was pronounced, instead of an original 
guttural, may be observed quite frequently in the 
Greeco-Roman and Keltic languages, and here we 
have Gr. Bots, Lat. 60s, Irish 60, and Welsh bu. 
The meaning of the word has been variously ex- 
plained, but, as we have beside it the Skr. gu, 
Gr. yodw and Bodw, Lat. boao, to “ bellow,” it is 
most likely an imitative sound, like our moo and 
mooley. In the dialect of the Vedas a bull is 
called védksha, in later Skr.“and Zend uksha ; in 


Gothic this appears as auhsa, and in Old Eng. 


134 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


as oxa, whence our oz. Sthira, again, is a Skr. 
name for bull, meaning the ‘‘ powerful” animal. 
In Zend ¢taora means a strong beast of burden; in 
English we have kept the full word steer, but the 
initial s has generally been dropped, so that we 
have Dan. tyr, Gr. and Lat. taurus, Russ. turu, 
Trish tor. The word bull itself is descriptive of 
the strength of the animal, and appears in Skr. 
balin, Irish bulan, Lith. bullus, and in many other 
languages. ‘There are a great many other Aryan 
names for these animals, but without spending 
time on them we may note that several of the 
words just cited have been borrowed by non- 
Aryan languages, such as those of the Finno-Ta- 
taric class, and even the Japanese and Chinese ; 
from which it would seem probable either that 
the primitive Aryans were the first to domesticate 
cattle, or at least that they were very preéminent 
as a pastoral race, and furnished to their neigh- 
bours great numbers of these most useful animals. 
The prominence of the cow in early Aryan 
thought is shown both by the multitude of syn- 
onyms for the creature, and by the frequency of 
similes, metaphors, and myths in the Vedic hymns 
in which the cow plays a part. In those days, 
moreover, which were before the days of ‘ soft” 
or ** hard” money, wealth was reckoned in cows, 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 135 


and cows were the circulating medium, with sheep 
and pigs for small change. Every one knows that 
Lat. pecunia is derived from pecus, “a herd;” 
the same is true of peculiwm, ‘‘a man’s private 
property,” from which we have obtained peculiar- 
ity, or * that which especially pertains to an indi- 
vidual.” Pecus, Lith. pekus, Skr. and Zend pagu, 
“the animal that is tied or penned up,” reappears 
with the regular change in Goth. fathu, Old Eng. 
Feoh, modern Germ. Vieh; in modern English 
the word has become fee, a * pecuniary reward.” 
In Irish we have bosluaiged, “ riches,’ from 6os- 
luag, “a herd of cows.” When you go to a tav- 
ern to dine you pay your shot or scot before leav- 
ing; or you sometimes, perhaps, get into a very 
ticklish situation, and still escape scot-free. In 
Old Eng. sceat was ** money,” and the Old Norse 
skattr and Goth. skatts had the same meaning ; 
but the Irish scath means * a herd,” and Old Bull. 
garian skotu was one of the many Aryan words 
for cow. Another of these words in Skr. is rupa, 
whence are derived répya, “money,” and the 
modern rupee of Bengal. 

More than a hundred different names for the 
horse have been counted in Sanskrit, but most of 
these are comparatively medern in origin. The 
only one we need notice is agva, from an Old 


1386 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Aryan akva, meaning “ the swift.” In Lith. the 
same word aszwa is the name of the mare only, 
but the Lat. eguus preserves the old meaning. 
The classic Greek izros does not sound so much 
like equus as one might expect, but we find the 
requisite transitions in the Aiolic t«xos and Old 
“Aiolic ixFos. In Irish nothing is left but the first 
syllable, ech. In Gothic the word reappears quite 
regularly as athva, and in Old Eng. this is clipped 
down into eoh. Modern English, however, and 
the other Teutonic languages have lost this word 
and replaced it by another, which goes back to 
the times of Teutonic unity, but does not seem to 
have been known to the primitive Aryans. The 
Old High Germans and the Norsemen pronounced 
this word hross, but the oldest Teutonic form was 
probably horsa, from a root hor, identical with 
Lat. currere, “to run.” Horse is accordingly 
connected by bonds of etymological kinship with 
its descriptive synonym courser. Modern High 
German, in turn, though it has not lost the word 
ross, has adopted a new name, pferd, which is in 
more frequent use, and the history of which is 
extremely curious. 

One of the few Keltic words which the Roman 
conquerors adopted from their Gaulish subjects 
was the word rheda, used to describe a light four. 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 1387 


wheeled carriage. Such carriages were used for 
posting, and the light, swift animal which drew 
them received a special name, made by compound- 
ing the root of veho, to “ draw” or “ carry,” with 
the name of this kind of carriage. Thus arose 
the word verédus, ‘ the drawer of the rheda,” the 
post-horse, or courier’s horse; and so veredarius 
was a post-classic Latin word for “ courier ;”’ but 
the name veredus was not long in becoming gen- 
eralized, for in Martial we find it used for a light, 
fleet hunting horse. At the same time there came 
into general use the curiously hybrid word para- 
veredus, made by prefixing the Greek preposition 
mapa, meaning * beyond,” to veredus, to denote an 
extra post-horse for extraordinary occasions. This 
mongrel word paraveredus, thus oddly made up 
out of Greek, Latin, and Keltic elements, seems 
to have been a favourite name for the horse in the 
Middle Ages. In Ducange’s great dictionary of 
medizval Latin we find parvaredus, parafredus, 
and palafredus, along with many other forms. 
From palafredus came the French palefroi and 
the English palfrey ; while the simple contraction 
and abbreviation of the older paraveredus re- 
sulted in the form pferd adopted by the modern 
German. 


As the Teutonic languages have thus adopted 


138 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


new words to designate the horse, so the modern 
Romanic languages have generally forgotten equus 
and substituted for it the name which appears in 
French as cheval and in Italian as caballo, and 
from which we have obtained such words as cav- 
alry, chevalier, and chivalry. Ancient Greek and 
Latin both had this word caballus, which, as ko- 
byla, is the common name for a horse in the Sla- 
vonic languages, and appears also in Irish as capall 
and in Welsh as ceffyl. We do not find any such 
name in Sanskrit, but in the Kawi of the island of 
Java, which is a non-Aryan Malay language, as 
full of Sanskrit words as English is of Latin 
words, we find the horse called capala, and side by 
side with this we have in Sanskrit the adjective 
capala, “swift.” The Sanskrit quite generally 
corrupted Old Aryan k-sounds in this way, as we 
corrupt Latin sounds in English when we say sere- 
brum and Sisero instead of kerebrum and Kikero ; 
and I have no doubt that in this word for “swift” 
we have the explanation of caballus. Curiously 
enough, the modern Greek lias also dropped the 
classical name for the fleet-footed beast, and sub- 
stituted dAoyor, which means “ unreasoning,” and 
in former times was applied to brutes in general. 
It is quite remarkable that there should have 
heen such vicissitudes in the career of the words 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 139 


which describe so familiar an animal, and we 
need no better illustration to convince us of the 
danger, above pointed out, of relying too confi- 
dently upon negative evidence in such inquiries as 
we are here making. Looking at the contempo- 
rary names only, we find the English and French 
saying horse and cheval, “the swift runner,” 
while High German and Greek say pferd, ‘the 
extra drawer of a post-carriage,”’ and dAoyor, “ the 
brute,’ — names quite distinct both in sound and 
in meaning. If all the other forms had been lost 
and replaced by new words, —as might easily be 
the case where there are so many synonyms for 
the same object,—we might perhaps have in- 
ferred that there was no common Aryan name 
for the horse, and that hence the animal was not 
known until after the separation of Aryan tribes 
had begun; but this would have been very plainly 
a mistake. 

Besides the horse and cow, the primitive Ar- 
yans had domesticated sheep, goats, and pigs, as 
well as dogs. With regard to the cat, the case is 
less clear. That wild species of the cat family 
were known seems probable, and the word puss 
has some claim to an Old Aryan pedigree, for we 
find pushak in modern Persian, puizé in Lithuan- 
ian, pusag and puss in Irish, whence we have 


140 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


adopted the word; but whether the primitive 
form of these names was applied to a wild or toa 
domesticated cat is uncertain. With this excep- 
tion, the Indo-European names are all different. 
In Latin we have felis, in Greek aidovpos; but we 
know otherwise that the Greeks and Romans had 
no domestic cats, but kept a kind of weasel to 
destroy their rats and mice. In our own and 
most other moderu European languages the prin- 
cipal name of the animal is borrowed from Latin ; 
but the Latin catus is itself an imported word 
from anon-Aryan source. It is the Syriac kato, 
Arabic kitt, indicating that the cat was intro- 
duced into Europe from the Levant, at a compar- 
atively recent period. 

But whether the Old Aryans had domestic cats 
or not, they certainly needed them, for the word 
mouse occurs, with hardly any variation, in near- 
ly all the Indo-European languages. In Latin, 
Greek, Old Norse, Old German, and Old English 
it is mus; in Russian we have myshi, in Bohe- 
mian mysh, in Persian mush, in Sanskrit musha, 
the ** pilfering creature,” the ‘ little thief.” 

Flies are also to be numbered among the house- 
hold pests of Aryana Vaéjo; the old name was 
makshi, the “ buzzing creature,” and is preserved 
in Zend and the modern Indian languages. In 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 141 


Europe we have Lith. musse, Bohem. musska, 
Lat. museca, O. H. G. muccha, Swed. and Old 
Eng. mygge, Eng. midge, of which the diminu. 
tive midget, or “little fly,” has been applied as 
a caressing epithet to children. The meaning of 
the more common Teutonic name “ fly ” is too ob- 
vious to require mention. 

The ordinary Aryan name for “ bee’? —Skr. 
bha, O. H. G. pia, Old Eng. beo, Eng. bee — re- 
fers to the bright colour of the insect, but the 
Lat. apis is the “ thrifty creature’ and the Greek 
pédicoa is the ‘maker of honey.” The Old Ar- 
yans not only kept bees for their honey, but out of 
the honey they made an intoxicating drink called 
madhu, from which we.have the Zend madhu and 
Greek pv, “ wine,” Russ. médii, Irish meadh, Old 
Eng. medu, Eng. mead. Wine and must are Old 
Aryan words, and the same is probably true of 
ale ; but in this latter instance we cannot safely 
infer that what we call ale was brewed, for the 
meaning of the word has varied considerably. 
Lith. alus, Old Norse 62, Old Eng. eala, mean 
“beer,” but the Skr. ali means a spirituous 
liquor, and the Irish o/ is applied to any kind of 
drink. As for the word beer itself, it is doubtful 
if it can be traced outside of the Teutonic lan- 
guages; for although it occurs in Irish, Welsh, 


142 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and modern Persian, it does not conform to 
Grimm’s law, and has thus most likely been bor- 
rowed from English or some other Teutonic 
source. 

Whether our Aryan forefathers brewed ale or 
not, they certainly cultivated barley and prob- 
ably wheat, and ground them into meal in mills. 
They were familiar with the plow, the yoke, and 
the spade. Their harvests were reaped with a 
sickle, and the grain was duly threshed and win- 
nowed, and carried to mill in wagons fitted with 
wheels and axle-trees. The blacksmith’s work 
with hammer and anvil, forge and bellows, was 
also carried on. Sewing and spinning were fem- 
inine occupations, and garments were woven out 
of sheep’s wool. The art of tanning was also 
practised, and leather shoes were worn. The 
entire career of the Aryans has been that of a 
warlike people. In the primitive times of which 
we are treating, their principal weapons were the 
lance, the bow and arrow, the sword and dagger 
and mace, with helmet and buckler for defence. 

That the early Aryans were acquainted with 
the sea seems unquestionable, for the name oc- 
curs, with very little change in sound and hardly 
any in meaning, in nearly all the Indo-European 
languages. The Lat. mare, whence our adjec- 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 148 


tive marine, appears in Skr. mira, Russ. moru, 
Lith. mares, Irish muir, Welsh mor, Goth. maret, 
O. H. G. mari, Old Norse mar, Old Eng. mere. 
In English meer is an archaic word, still used in 
poetry in the sense of “lake,” and it appears in 
many well-known names of English lakes, as 
Grasmere and Windermere. ‘The original sense 
of the word has something poetic in it, for it 
means the barren, desolate waste, just as we find 
it commonly described in Homer. The Teutonic 
languages, however, have generally adopted an- 
other name. In Skr. sava means simply ‘“‘ water,” 
but the more specific sense appears in Goth. sazvs, 
O. H. G. seo, Old Eng. sew, Eng. sea. It is 
noticeable that while modern English applies this 
name to great bodies of water, and keeps meer 
only in the sense of lake, in modern German the 
case is just the reverse, — in German meer is the 
sea, but see is a lake. The only other conspic- 
uous deviation from the general Aryan usage is a 
very characteristic one. The Greeks, who were 
the most maritime of all peoples that have ex- 
isted, save the English, had three names for the 
sea, of which the later @¢Aacoa and zéAayos re- 
ferred to the boisterous, white-crested waves, but 
the earlier ‘z6vros meant a “ pathway for travel.” 
What large bodies of water the primitive Aryans 


144 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


could have known is not fully ascertained, but 
they were perhaps the Caspian and the Sea of 
Aral. On these inland seas, or along the great 
rivers which flowed through their country, the 
Aryans would seem to have plied in boats rowed _ 
with oars: but whether they had advanced far- 
ther than this is uncertain. At all events, there 
is a singular lack of agreement among all the com- 
mon words indicative of a higher acquaintance 
with the art of navigation. 

With these illustrations we must bring our ex- 
position too abruptly to a close. By the course 
of inquiry we have followed, something might be 
brought out concerning the political organization 
of the primitive Aryans, which appears to have 
been extremely simple. ‘The people,” says Pro- 
fessor Whitney, “was doubtless a congeries of 
petty tribes, under chiefs and leaders rather than 
kings, and with institutions of a patriarchal cast, 
among which the reduction to servitude of prison- 
ers taken in war appears not to have been want- 
ing.’ ‘This inquiry, however, would take us far 
beyond our limits, and might be more advanta- 
geously conducted in another connection, where 
we might avail ourselves of the harmonious results 
which Sir Henry Maine, Mr. Freeman, and others 
have elicited from a comparative survey of Indo- 


* 


What we Learn from Old Aryan Words. 148 


European politics and jurisprudence. But this 
most interesting and profitable study must be 
postponed to another occasion. In the present, 
paper, confining myself chiefly to the material 
circumstances of the primitive Aryans, I have 
endeavoured only to give some idea of the methol 
by which sound conclusions are reached, through 
the study of words, concerning the civilization of 
an age of which the historic tradition has been 
utterly lost. More than this could not well be 
attempted in so brief an exposition. The ex. 
amples have been scanty, and from the nature 0% 
the subject they may perhaps have seemed rather 
dry. It is not ina moment that one can become 
fully possessed with the rare fascination which 
surrounds the study of the historic lessons con- 
veyed in words. Yet possibly to some reader it 
may have come as a novel and striking thought 
that out of mere grammars and dictionaries a 
trustworthy picture of the long-forgotten past 
may be reconstructed. Inadequate as our illus- 
trations have been, none can fail to perceive the 
historic interest and value of the information 
which has been gained in this way. Inquiries of 
this sort need, no doubt, much caution and sa- 
gacity to be conducted successfully ; but when 


properly sifted there is no more unimpeachable 
10 


146 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


testimony to the past than that which the aspect 
of words gives us. For the changes of vowel 
and consonant proceed according to general laws 
which observation may detect, but with which no 
individual will is able to tamper. And thus it is 
that in the winged word which seems to perish 
in its flight through the air we have nevertheless 
the most abiding record, though unwittingly pre- 
served, of the knowledge and achievements of 
mankind. 


August, 1876. 


V. 
WAS THERE A PRIMEVAL MOTHER-TONGUE? 


OF all the great changes in thought which the 
present century has witnessed, perhaps none is 
more striking than that which has’ occurred in 
our methods of studying the beginnings of human 
culture. The discoveries of Grimm and Bopp in 
comparative philology, the decipherment of mys- 
terious inscriptions in Egypt and Assyria, the 
study of legal archzology illustrated by Sir Henry 
Maine, the doctrine of survivals so ably expounded 
by Mr. Tylor, and especially the geologic proof 
of the enormous antiquity of the human race, to- 
gether with the wide-reaching and powerful spec- 
ulations of Mr. Darwin, have all contributed to 
bring about this change. So completely has our 
point of view been shifted by these various theo- 
ries and discoveries that many speculations which 
at the beginning of the present century possessed 
an absorbing interest have now come to seem friv- 
olous or irrelevant; and nothing can better il- 
lustrate the extent of the change than the fate of 


148 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


some of these speculations. It is not many years 
since ethnologists were racking their brains to 
show how the North American Indians might 
have come over from Asia; and there was felt to 
be a sort of speculative necessity for discovering 
points of resemblance between American lan- 
guages, myths, and social observances and those 
of the Oriental world. Now the Aborigines of 
this continent were made out to be Kamtchat- 
kans, and now Chinamen, and again they were 
shown, with quaint erudition, to be remnants of 
the ten tribes of Israel. Perhaps none of these 
theories have been exactly disproved, but they 
have all been superseded, and have lost their in- 
terest. We now know that in the earliest post- 
Pliocene times, if not in the Pliocene age itself, 
at least four hundred thousand years ago, the 
American continent was inhabited by human be- 
ings. The primeval Californian skull, moreover, 
resembles the modern American Indian type, and 
is not to be confounded with Old World skulls. 
It is probable, therefore, that far back in post- 
Pliocene times, before the great glacial period, 
the ancestors of the American Indians had al- 
ready become distinguished from the races of 
Asia. Now both before and since that time the 
eastern and western continents have been repeat- 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 149 


edly joined together at their northern extremities. 
In view of such facts, whatever opinion we may 
ultimately adopt, we feel that all theories of the 
recent colonization of America by Kamtchatkans, 
or Chinamen, or the ten tribes of Israel, are su- 
perseded and laid on the shelf. That recent 
migrations may have occurred is quite another 
affair. Theories like those of Brasseur de Bour. 
bourg are still to be treated on their own merits, 
independently of general considerations. But one 
now perceives, in reading them, that they were 
dictated by a kind of speculative necessity which 
we no longer feel, because our whole point of 
view has been shifted. 

In similar wise have fared the innumerable 
plans which formerly occupied the attention of 
scholars for colonizing the whole world from the 
highlands of Armenia. The ethnological infor- 
mation contained in the book of Genesis is of 
great interest and value, but so far from relating 
to the whole human race, it totally ignores the 
larger part of the world, and is concerned only 
with the peoples of which an inhabitant of Syria 
might be expected to know something. Long be- 
fore any possible date for the diffusion from Ar- 
menia there described, we know that populous 
and stationary communities flourished on the 


150 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


banks of the Nile and the Euphrates; while sav- 
age or barbarous tribes, using stone hatchets and 
flint-headed arrows, wandered through the prime- 
val forests of Europe and America. Armenia re- 
tains its interest, to some extent, as a possible 
starting point, but only in connection with the 
Semitic race and its neighbours, — so thoroughly 
have our notions been remodelled. 

Old-fashioned speculations concerning the prim- 
itive unity of human speech have similarly fallen 
into discredit. Previous to the detection of the 
kinship between the various forms of Aryan 
speech, no end of books were written to prove 
that all known languages were in some way de- 
scended from Hebrew; not that there was any 
warrant for such an opinion, either in Scripture or 
in the general probabilities of the case, but that 
the preéminence of Hebrew as the language of 
Jehovah’s chosen people and the vehicle of divine 
revelation created a speculative need for proving 
it to be the original uncorrupted dialect of man- 
kind. Since the establishment of the Aryan fam- 
ily of languages, it has still been felt necessary to 
prove that ali existing varieties of speech have 
had a common origin, and as a step toward this 
end great learning and ingenuity have been ex- 
pended in the attempt to detect some primordial 


- 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 151 


similarity between the Semitic languages and lan- 
guages of Aryan descent. 

It is not too much to say that all this learning 
and ingenuity have been utterly wasted. Apart 
from a few casual coincidences, as in the Hebrew 
and Sanskrit words for stz, there is not a trace of 
similarity between the Semitic and the Aryan vo- 
cabularies ; while as regards both inflection and 
syntax, the entire structure of these two families 
of speech is so radically unlike, that only the most 
desperate feeling of speculative necessity could 
ever have induced any one to seek a common orig- 
inal for the two. But after getting irretrievably 
worsted in the encounter with facts, this specu- 
lative craving is now outgrown and laid aside with 
the others. The antiquity of the human race 
again comes in to alter entirely our stand-point. 
Considering how multifariously language varies 
from age to age, and considering that mankind 
has doubtless possessed the power of articulate 
speech for some thousands of centuries, it no 
longer seems worth while to seek immediate con- 
clusions about primitive speech from linguistic 
records which do not carry us back more than four 
or five thousand years. 

From the vantage-ground which we now oc- 
cupy, it is not difficult to see that the hypothesis 


152 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


of a single primeval language, from which all ex- 
isting languages have descended, involves an ab- 
surd assumption. ‘Those who maintain such an 
hypothesis, in so far as their statements have any 
definite and tangible meaning, must mean that all 
existing languages stand in relation to the hypo- 
thetical primitive language very much as French 
and Italian stand in relation to Latin, or English 
and German to Old Teutonic, or Latin and Old 
Teutonic to Old Aryan. But in point of fact the 
case is very different from this. We know that 
French and Italian are differently modified forms 
of Latin, because we can trace the modern words 
directly back to their ancient prototypes, and ver- 
ify by the aid of written documents their various 
changes of form and meaning. After carrying 
on for a while this process of comparison, we find 
that the modern words vary from the ancient ac- 
cording to certain well-defined rules, which are 
different for French and Italian, but are singu- 
larly uniform for each Janguage. So unmistak- 
able is the regularity of the system of changes, 
that if all record of Latin were to be swept away 
we might still reconstruct the language from a 
comparative study of its modern descendants. 
Mois and mese, for example, the French and Ital- 
ian words for ‘ month,” would give us the Latin 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue 2? 1538 


mensis, and nothing else; and so on throughout. 
In similar wise, although the Old Aryan lan- 
guage has left no written documents to tell us of 
its grammar and vocabulary, we have neverthe- 
less detected such a regular system of phonetic 
changes among the languages which have de- 
scended from it that we have. been already ena- 
bled to go some way toward reconstructing this 
extinct tongue. Month and mensis, for example, 
carry us back, with little less than absolute cer- 
tainty, to an Old Aryan mansa; and so on as 
before, though here the inquiry is an abstruse one, 
requiring patience and sound judgment, and there 
is room enough for doubt in many cases. The 
general relationship of the Aryan languages to 
their common ancestor is, however, no less clearly 
manifest than that of the modern Romanic lan- 
guages to the Latin. After fifty years of such 
comparative study, in a cautious and prudent way, 
we have succeeded in making out some few cases 
of demonstrable genetic kinship among groups of 
languages. Beside the Aryan family, in the study 
of which such profound knowledge has been ob- 
tained, we have clearly made out the existence of 
the Dravidian family in Southern India, and of 
the Altaic family, —to which the Finnish, Hun- 
garian, and Turkish belong, — to say nothing of 


154 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


the long-established Semitic family. Other fami- 
lies of speech no doubt exist, and will by and by 
have their relationships definitely marked out. 
But the moment we try to compare these families 
with each other, in order to detect some definable 
link of relationship between them, we are in- 
stantly baffled. Any true family of languages 
will show a community of structure as conspicu- 
ous as that which is seen among vertebrate ani- 
mals. The next family you study will be as dis- 
tinctly marked in its characteristics as is the 
group of articulated insects, spiders, and crusta- 
ceans. But to compare the two families with 
each other will prove as futile as to compare a 
reindeer with a lobster. The only conclusion to 
which you can logically come is that while cer- 
tain languages, here and there, have become vari- 
ously modified, so as to give rise to well-defined 
families of speech, the like process has not taken 
place universally. In other words, the derivation 
of a dozen languages from a common ancestor is 
not a permanent and universal, but a temporary 
and local phenomenon in the history of human 
speech, and we need not expect to come across 
any such fact of derivation, except where it can 
be duly accounted for by the peculiar circum: 
stances of the case. 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 155 


This conclusion is reinforced when we consider 
the circumstances under which a single language 
gives rise to several mutually resembling descend- 
ants. Obviously such a language must have a 
high degree of permanence and a wide extension. 
It must be spoken for a long time by large bodies 
of men spread over a wide territorial area. Take, 
for example, the rise of the modern Romanic 
languages from the Latin. In the fourth century 
after Christ the Latin language was spoken all 
over the Italian and Spanish peninsulas, through- 
out most of Gaul and Switzerland, along the — 
banks of the Upper Danube, and in what are 
now called the Rumanian principalities. In all 
these countries Latin was the speech in which 
the ordinary affairs of life were transacted, and 
this had come to be so mainly because the native 
dialects of these countries were numerous and 
uncultivated ; and as all were in close political 
and social connection with Rome, it was a much 
simpler matter for all to learn Latin than for the 
Romans and their subjects alike to learn a score 
of barbarous tongues. The business of life got 
more easily transacted in this way. No such re- 
sult followed the conquest of the Eastern world, 
because Greek was spoken all over the East, and 
every educated Roman knew Greek already ; so 


156 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


that in this case it was a simpler matter for the 
conquerors to talk Greek than for their subjects 
to learn Latin. Practical convenience is the final 
arbiter in pretty much all such cases. Now it 
must not be supposed that the Latin talked all 
over the West was quite like the elegant language 
of Cesar and Virgil. It was only educated people 
in Rome or Milan, and perhaps in such cities as 
Nismes or Lyons, that talked like this. Colloquial 
Latin always had plenty of dialectic peculiarities. 
Even in Italy the Latin had supplanted, in former 
times, a number of kindred Umbrian and Sabine 
dialects, and we may be sure that all these left 
their mark upon the common speech. In getting 
diffused over Europe, this impure colloquial Latin 
could not fail to pick up here and there some pe- 
culiar word or phrase, while now and then some 
other word or phrase would be lost from its old 
stock and forgotten, so that people did not talk 
just alike throughout the empire. A Spaniard’s 
local peculiarities of utterance and phraseology 
were distinguishable from those of a Rhetian, 
though both talked Latin and could understand 
each other. 

Now as every language changes more or less 
from age to age, so the speech of the Romans in 
the fourth century after Christ had come to differ 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 157 


in many respects from the speech of their fore- 
fathers who, six hundred years earlier, had fought 
against Hannibal. But up to this time the inter- 
course between the various parts of the Roman 
world had been so close and continuous that the 
capital still furnished the standard of discourse 
for the whole empire. During the next six cen- 
turies a different set of circumstances was at 
work. For a second time the Latin language was 
learned by scores of barbarous tribes, but this 
time it was no longer Rome that set the fashion 
and maintained the standard. In innumerable 
provincial towns and barbaric assemblies new 
standards of speaking were gradually established. 
The lines of connection, administrative and com- 
mercial, which had formerly been kept up, were 
in many cases severed, and each little tract of 
country led a more sequestered life than before. 
Many new expressions came into use, — Teutonic 
in Gaul and Italy, Arabic in Spain, Slavic in 
Rumania; and local idioms and peculiarities of 
accent multiplied, in the absence of a uniform 
standard. In this way the vulgar Latin insensi- 
bly diverged into a host of provincial dialects, or 
patois, the divergence being great or little accord- 
ing to the frequency of intercourse between dif- 
ferent localities. Thus the Tuscan and the Sa- 


158 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


voyard could both understand the Milanese, the 
inhabitant of Lyons could talk with the Savoyard 
and with the citizen of Orleans, and the Orleanese 
would be intelligible to the Parisian; while, on 
the other hand, the Parisian could hardly carry 
on a conversation with the Savoyard, and would 
be quite incapable of understanding the Tuscan. 
Some such slowly-graded transition may still be 
noticed by the traveller from France to Italy who 
takes pains to observe the speech of the common 
people. At Nice, for instance, local newspapers 
are published in a dialect which one hardly knows 
whether to call French, Provengal, or Italian. 
After this process of divergence had gone on 
for some time, a new start was taken toward uni- 
formity, but in such a way as to enhance and 
complete the divergence already begun. When 
literary men gave up trying to write classical 
Latin, and began to clothe their thoughts in the 
colloquial Romance or vulgar tongue of the times, 
new centres of political and intellectual life had 
begun to be formed at Paris, Toulouse, and Flor- 
ence ; and the dialects of these cities began to 
assume preéminence as literary and fashionable 
dialects. As southern France came more and 
more under the sway of Paris, the second of these 
centres indeed lost its relative importance, and 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 159 


the Provengal tongue gradually sank into an un- 
fashionable patois ; but Parisian and Tuscan, on 
the other hand, came to be so generally read and 
spoken that after a while they quite crowded 
their intermediate sister dialects out of sight, and 
to-day they are the sole recognized representatives 
of good French and good Italian speech, although 
there is still a great deal of French spoken that is 
not Parisian, and a great deal of Italian that is 
not Tuscan. This predominance of the two cen- 
tral dialects is in our day increasing more rapidly 
and decisively than ever before, and the process 
will unquestionably go on until all Frenchmen 
speak Parisian, and all Italians speak Tuscan. 
Railroads and telegraphs, newspapers and novels, 
have already sealed the death-warrant of all patois, 
and the execution is only a question of time. It is 
because of the wide diffusion in our own country 
of these powerful agencies for keeping men in 
contact with each other that we have no varieties 
of dialect here worth speaking of. It is not at 
all likely that in this country such dialectic va- 
riations will ever spring up. And for the same 
reason it is not likely that any essential divergence 
will ever arise between the English language as 
spoken in England and the same language as 
spoken in America. In the Middle Ages, wolves, 


160 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


brute and human, tax-gatherers and robber bar- 
ons, as well as bad roads and imperfect vehi- 
cles, made a few miles of wood or mountain a 
greater barrier to intercourse than the wide 
ocean is to-day. For the language of the thriv- 
ing people to whom, as to the ancient Greeks, 
the ocean has become (7ovr0s) a common * path- 
way ;”’ who have taught mankind how to drive 
ships with steam, and how to send electric flashes 
of intelligence through the watery abyss, — for 
this language a future of unprecedented glory 
isin store. By the end of the twentieth century, 
English will no doubt be spoken by something 
like eight hundred million people, crowding all 
over North America and Australia, as well as 
over a good part of Africa and India, with island 
colonies in every sea and naval stations on every 
cape. By that time so large a proportion of the 
business of the world will be transacted by people 
of English descent that, as a mere matter of con- 
venience, the whole world will have to learn Eng- 
lish. Whatever other language any one may have 
learned in childhood, he will find it necessary to 
speak English also. In this way our language 
will become more and more cosmopolitan, while 
all others become more and more provincial, until 
after a great length of time they will probably 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 161 


one after another assume the character and incur 
the fate of local patois. One by one they will be- 
come extinct, leaving English as the universal lan- 
guage of mankind. 

There is, I think, a considerable probability 
that things will come to pass in this way, though 
the process must of course be a very slow one, 
and the result here prefigured will very likely 
come so far down in the future as to coincide with 
the disappearance of barbarism from the earth, 
and with the inauguration of that pacific ** parlia- 
ment of man” of which the philosophic poet has 
told us. But, however the actual result may 
shape itself in its details, the considerations here 
brought forward would seem to indicate that com- 
plete community of speech belongs rather to the 
later than to the earlier stages of human progress. 
What we may regard as certain is that community 
of speech on a wide scale requires prolonged and 
continuous business communication among large 
bodies of men. Where communication is seriously 
interrupted for a long period of time, as in the 
Dark Ages of Europe, the tendency is for the com- 
mon language to break up into a number of more 
or less similar dialects; and in proportion as fre- 
quent communication is resumed there is mani- 


fested an opposite tendency of a few central dia- 
11 


162 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


lects to crush out their neighbours, and to grow 
into wide-spread languages. ‘This is, in brief, the 
way in which languages grow, and diverge, and 
supplant one another. There is nothing that is 
mysterious or metaphysical in the process ; it is 
purely a matter of practical convenience. In the 
long run the actions of man are determined by 
what we may call the “law of least effort:” the 
easiest way of doing things is the one which, 
sooner or later, is sure to be adopted; and to this 
general law the myriad little actions involved in 
speech form no exception. 

Carrying back to ancient times the laceore we 
have learned from the career of Latin, we find that 
the facts, so far as known, sustain our conclusion. 
Among the Semitic peoples there was undoubtedly 
a time when all were of one blood and one speech. 
No one doubts that Arabs, Jews, and Syrians are 
as closely related by descent as Germans, Swedes, 
and Englishmen. ‘The social condition of these 
Semitic races, shortly before the historic period, 
is best represented by the wandering Arabs of the 
present day. In this patriarchal stage of society 
there is no such close political cohesion as there is 
among nations of modern type, but there is fre- 
quent intercourse for business purposes, and even 
sometimes for purely literary objects, as in the 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 163 


old competitions of bards at Mecca before the 
time of Mohammed; and this intercourse has 
sufficed to preserve the main features of the lan- 
guage. In early times there was sufficient com- 
munication between the patriarchal tribes of 
Arabia and Palestine and the adjacent civilized 
nations of Assyria, Babylonia, and Phoenicia to 
prevent any very wide divergence of speech. 
The differences between Hebrew, Syriac, and 
Assyrian are not greater than the differences 
between French, Spanish, and Italian. 

So, too, in the direct line of our own ancestry, 
we find that the primitive Aryans were a race 
partly agricultural and partly pastoral in pursuits, 
living in durable houses, grouped together into 
large villages, surrounded by defensible walls. 
The structure of the family was somewhat cruder 
than among the patriarchal Arabs and Hebrews; 
the social and political system may have been in 
some respects such as we see vestiges of to-day 
in the village communities of Russia and Hindus- 
tan. Preéminent among all early races in the 
rearing of flocks and herds, the old Aryans re- 
quired immense grazing grounds, and would seem 
to have occupied all the wide grassy plains which 
lie between the mountains of central Tartary and 
the southern slopes of European Russia. At the 


164 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


same time their agricultural pursuits and their 
durable villages imply a considerable amount of 
political stability, and there is good evidence that 
for a long time a common language was spoken 
throughout this vast territory. As we follow 
these Aryan tribes in their great career of perma- 
nent conquest and settlement, one branch into 
Persia and India, and other branches into Greece, 
Italy, Germany, Gaul, and Britain, we come upon 
the same linguistic phenomena which we observed 
above in the medizval history of Latin. With 
the isolation of the various tribes, separated from 
each other by wide distances, we see the Aryan 
mother-tongue break up into innumerable dialec- 
tic forms; until, by and by, with the rise of new 
and distinct centres of social life, new and dis- 
tinct languages come upon the scene, and acquire 
literary immortality in the Vedas, in the Avesta, 
in the epics of Homer and Virgil, in the novels of 
Cervantes and Turgenief, in the sermons of Bos- 
suet and Taylor, in the dramas of Shakespeare 
and Goethe, and in that palladium of linguistic 
stability in the future, — the English version of 
the Bible. 

In such cases as these, where a single durable 
mother -language has produced several durable 
offspring, the signs of kinship, whether in gram- 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 165 


mar or in vocabulary, are never obliterated. 
After an independent career of more than ten 
centuries, the genetic relationship of French and 
Italian is a perfectly patent fact, about which 
there could be no question whatever, even if all 
memory of the Roman Empire had lapsed from 
men’s minds, even if some fanatical Cardinal 
Ximenes had burned in a bonfire every scrap of 
French and Italian literature that ever existed. 
After an independent career of not less than forty 
centuries, the kinship of Latin and Sanskrit is 
equally unmistakable. It is not an occult fact, 
which discloses itself only after a subtle philologi- 
cal analysis; it is a fact so plain that no one who 
reads Sanskrit and Latin books can possibly over- 
look it, and it forced itself upon the attention of 
the first European scholars who studied Sanskrit 
in the seventeenth century, though they knew 
nothing of philological analysis as we understand 
it. The similarity between the long-known He- 
brew and the lately-deciphered Assyrian is no less 
conspicuous; and the same may be said of the 
Dravidian languages of southern India when com- 
pared with one another. 

But as we leave this circle of studies, and ven- 
ture out into the wilderness of barbaric speech, 
we find a very different state of things. The 


166 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


northern portions of Asia have been inhabited, 
within the period of history, by three different 
races, all of whom still survive, — the Finno- 
Tataric, the Mongolian, and the Samoyedic races. 
The linguistic relationships of these peoples are 
very instructive. In the first place, the Finno- 
Tataric peoples appear to belong to the same 
white race from which the Aryans and the Semites 
have diverged, although there is nothing remotely 
resembling Aryan or Semitic in Finno-Tataric 
speech. This family of languages is represented 
in Europe by the Finnish and its neighbouring 
dialects, by the Hungarian, and by the Turkish. 
In Asia it is represented by a great number of 
languages, spoken in the Caucasus, in Turkistan, 
and in Siberia. Eastward of this vast region 
comes the Mongolian or yellow race, with which 
we should be very careful not to confound the 
Tatars. There has always been a great deal of 
confusion of nomenclature in speaking of these 
races, but the lines of distinction are really simple 
enough when we have once learned them. The 
ambiguous word which is responsible for most of 
the confusion is the epithet Tatar, which did 
originally belong to the Mongols, but has come to 
be applied by preference to the Turkish family. 
When Jinghis Khan, in the thirteenth century, 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 167 


made the name Tatar a sign of terror and humil- 
lation to all Asia and Europe, it became cus- 
tomary to apply this dreaded epithet to all the 
hordes that were subject to the Mongolian ruler, 
—changing the word slightly to “Tartar,” so as 
to add to it a mild flavour of the bottomless pit, 
in allusion to the general behaviour of those ugly 
customers. As most of these hordes with which 
Europeans came into contact were really of white 
or Turkish race, the name Tatar became gradu- 
ally appropriated to these, and thus became unfit 
for distinguishing the yellow Mongolians. All 
ambiguity would be avoided if we were to drop 
the name Tatar altogether, and substitute the 
name Turk for the whole group of peoples of 
which the Ottomans are the most conspicuous. 
Our school atlases already have “ Turkistan” in- 
stead of the old-fashioned “ Independent Tar- 
tary.” 

The Mongolian race comprises the yellow tribes 
of central Asia, from whom came Jinghis Khan, 
Timur, and the whole line of Mogul sovereigns of 
India; and also the Tungusians, or Mandshus, 
who for the last two centuries have ruled over 
China. The Chinese themselves, as well as the 
Japanese, must also be considered as branches of 
the Mongolian race. On the other hand, the 


168 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Samoyeds of northern Siberia seem to be allied 
to our Eskimos, but not very obviously to the 
Mongolians. 

The race divisions of the northern half of Asia 
are thus clear enough. First, we have the Finno- 
Tatars, or Finno-Turks, belonging to the dark 
haired portion of the great white race; secondly, 
we have the Mongolians ; thirdly, the arctic 
Samoyeds. But the languages spoken by these 
peoples cannot be classified in any such simple 
way. The languages of the Finns and Turks 
carry us back to two motlher-tongues, and these 
are possibly reducible to one. It is otherwise 
when we come to Mongolian speech. On the one 
hand, the Mongolian dialects of central Asia are 
strikingly similar in structure to the Tungusian 
languages, and also to the Japanese; and in these 
structural peculiarities they agree also with the 
Finno- Turkic. On the other hand, when we 
study the vocabularies, we do not find any simi- 
larity, such as to suggest a primitive identity, 
between Japanese, Tungusian, and Mongolian 
proper. We are still further baffled when we 
come to Chinese. The people of Japan obtained 
their written character from China, modifying it 
to suit the needs of their own language; and so 
a Japanese printed page looks very like a printed 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 169 


page in Chinese. If you were just to look at 
these printed pages, you would imagine that the 
two languages are very similar, just as a China- 
man, on seeing Hungarian printed in the Roman 
character, would fancy that Hungarian must be 
similar to English or Latin. In reality no kin- 
ship has yet been detected between the languages 
of China and Japan. Not only in vocabulary 
does Chinese differ from all the other languages 
spoken by the Mongolian race, but it even pre- 
sents a fundamentally distinct type of linguistic 
structure. Age after age, from the remotest antiq- 
uity to which historic or philologic inference can 
guide us, the Chinese have talked with different 
words and after a different grammatical fashion 
from their yellow neighbours; and these in turn 
have maintained each their distinct varieties of 
speech ; although all these peoples — the in- 
habitants of Japan and China, the Tungusians, 
and the Mongols of central Asia — are undoubt- 
edly united by physical bonds of descent from one 
and the same primeval yellow race. 

The inference from this is that there never was 
a primitive Mongolian mother-tongue in the sense 
in which there was a primitive Aryan mother- 
tongue. The common ancestors of Japanese, 
Chinese, Tungusian, and Mongol never at any 


170 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


time lived together in one great society, welded 
into a unit by community of language, traditions, 
and customs, as was the case with the common 
ancestors of Roman, Teuton, and Hindu. On the 
contrary, the aboriginal yellow men must have 
roamed about in detached tribes, like the blacks 
of Australia or the red men of America, with 
half-formed languages fluctuating from generation 
to generation, diverging with great rapidity, and 
speedily losing all traces of their origin. En- 
sconced within convenient mountain barriers, one 
series of these yellow tribes worked out its pecul- 
iar language and civilization in the rich hill- 
country and along the great navigable rivers of 
China. A second series of tribes, moving with- 
out reference to these, and at a very much later 
date, formed a permanent community in the isl- 
ands of Japan. While the remainder of the race 
have led a nomadic life down to the present day ; 
now and then engaging in combined activity for a 
generation or two, under the guidance of such ad- 
venturers as Attila, or Jinghis, or Timur, to be- 
come for a brief season the “scourge of God” and 
the terror of mankind, but ever, as now, inca- 
pable of stable political union. With such diver. 
gent careers as these, we need not expect to find 
evidence of linguistic community among the dif- 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 171 


ferent branches of the yellow race. If we find 
one set of linguistic phenomena in China, and a 
totally different set in Japan, and yet another set 
among the barbarous Mongols and Tunguses, this 
is no more than we might have expected. We 
need not expect to find such phenomena as the 
codrdinate divergence of French and Italian from 
a common Latin mother-tongue, or of Latin and 
Sanskrit from a common Aryan mother-tongue, 
except where we can find historical conditions 
similar to those under which these phenomena 
were manifested. Outside of that broad stream 
of history which includes the Aryan and Semitic 
worlds we do not find such conditions, save in a 
few sporadic cases. On the contrary, we find just 
such a state of things as'would follow from the 
isolated independent development of a number of 
languages, either without any original kinship, or 
with the original kinship blurred and destroyed 
almost from the very beginning. 

The last clause introduces us to a consideration 
concerning barbarous languages which is of the 
first importance. There is a certain sense in 
which we may admit community of origin for 
languages that are now quite dissimilar; but the 
sense is one that is foreign to philological usage, 
and has no real philological significance. No 


172 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


doubt all the yellow races of Asia are descended 
from some small group of yellow progenitors, and 
no doubt this ancestral group possessed the 
faculty of articulate speech. Most likely the 
eroup was at the outset small enough to use but 
one language, and as the group increased in size 
and became subdivided into a number of tribes, 
the common language would soon get broken up 
into dialects. So far very good; but what we 
have to notice is that under such circumstances 
the breaking up of the common language would 
not in any way resemble the breaking up of 
Latin into the dialects of France and Italy. On 
the contrary, the several dialects would change so 
rapidly as to lose their identity: within a couple 
of centuries it would be impossible to detect any 
resemblance to the language of the primitive 
tribe. ‘The speech of uncivilized tribes, when not 
subject to the powerful conservative force of 
widespread custom or permanent literary tradi- 
tion, changes with astonishing rapidity. Such 
languages usually contain but a few hundred 
words, and these are often forgotten by the dozen 
and replaced by new ones even in the course of a 
single generation. Among many South American 
Indians, as Azara tells us, the language changes 
fram clan to clan, and almost from hut to hut, so 


Was there a Primeval Mother-Tongue? 1738 


that members of different families are obliged to 
have recourse to gestures to eke out the scanty 
pittance of oral discourse that is mutually intel- 
ligible. In the northern part of Celebes, “ina 
district about one hundred miles long by thirty 
miles wide, not less than ten distinct languages 
are spoken.” ! In civilized speech no words stick 
like the simple numerals: we use the same words 
to-day, in counting from one to ten, that our an- 
cestors used in central Asia ages before the 
winged bulls of Nineveh were sculptured; and 
the change in pronunciation has been barely 
sufficient to disguise the identity. But in the 
language of Tahiti four of the ten simple nu- 
merals used in Captain Cook’s time have already 
become extinet : — 
“ Two was rua ; itis now pitti. 

Four was ha ; it is now maha. 

Five was rima ; it is now pae. 

Six was ono ; it is now fene.” ? 
Out of many facts that might be cited, these 
must suffice. The facility with which savage 
tongues abandon old expressions for new has no 
parallel in civilized languages, unless it be in 
some of the more ephemeral kinds of slang. It is 


1 Miiller, Science of Language, 6th ed. ii. 36. 
2 Op. cit. 28. 


174 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


sufficiently clear, I think, that under such cir- 
cumstances a language will seldom or never ac- 
quire sufficient stability to give rise to mutually 
resembling derivative dialects. If the habits of 
primitive men were in general similar to those of 
modern savages, we need not be surprised that 
philologists are unable to trace all existing lan- 
guages back to a common origin. In order to get 
back to a universal mother-tongue, it would al- 
most seem requisite that the history of mankind 
should have begun with universal empire. 

We shall conclude, I think, after a survey of 
the whole matter, that in speech, as in other as- 
pects of social life, the progress of mankind is 
from fragmentariness to solidarity: at the be- 
ginning, a multitude of feeble, mutually hostile 
tribes, incapable of much combined action, with 
hundreds of half-formed dialects, each intelligible 
to a few score of people; at the end, an organized 
system of mighty nations, pacific in disposition, 
with unlimited reciprocity of intercourse, with 
very few languages, rich and precise in structure 
and vocabulary, and understood by all men. 

December, 1877. 


VI. 
SOCIOLOGY AND HERO-WORSHIP. 


In his interesting article entitled “ Great Men, 
Great Thoughts, and the Environment,” ‘pub- 
lished in “ The Atlantic Monthly ” for October, 
1880, Dr. William James calls attention to the 
striking analogy between “geniuses ”’ and what 
are known to modern zodlogists as ‘ spontaneous 
variations.” Nothing could be more satisfactory 
than the manner in which (on pages 444-447) 
Dr. James expounds the nature of this analogy, 
and emphasizes the truly philosophic character of 
Mr. Darwin’s method of dealing with so-called 
spontaneous variations. ‘The analogy between 
those variations, on the one hand, of which the 
zoologist takes cognizance, and on the other hand 
those “ sociological variations” known as gen- 


iuses or “ great men,” 


consists essentially in the 
similarity of causal relations in the two cases. 
Both kinds of variations may be described as de- 
viations from an average which are severally un- 


accountable. Every species of animals or plants 


176 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


consists of a great number of individuals, which 
are nearly but not exactly alike. Each individual 
varies slightly in one characteristic or another 
from a certain type which expresses the average 
among all the individuals of the species. Thus, 
if one inch be the average length of the proboscis 
of a certain species of moth, it may well be that 
of the million individuals which make up the spe- 
cies the great majority have the proboscis a little 
shorter or a little longer than an inch: in most 
instances the deviation may not exceed a hun- 
dredth or athousandth part of an inch; but there 
may be half a dozen individuals in the species 
which have the proboscis as long as two inches or 
as short as half an inch. So, the average height 
of men in the United States may be about five 
feet and eight inches, very few men being shorter 
than five feet and four inches, or taller than six 
feet; yet in the side-tents which accompany that 
‘creat moral exhibition,” the circus, one may, 
for a quarter of a dollar, see giants eight feet in 
height, or dwarfs like General Tom Thumb. It 
is just the same with men’s intellectual capacities 
as with their physical dimensions, though the one 
cannot exactly, like the other, be measured with 
a foot-rule. In every community of men and 
women there is a certain average standard of 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 177 


mental capacity ; which, in the case of a progres- 
sive race like ours, may be roughly described as 
that degree of ability to meet the complicated ex- 
igencies of civilized life which will leave the next 
generation somewhat better equipped than their 
parents for meeting these exigencies. Those men 
whom we regard as conspicuously successful in 
life — using the term “successful” in no narrow 
and mercantile, but in the broadest possible sense 
— are the men, more or less numerous, whose 
mental capacity rises somewhat above this aver- 
age standard. <A like number of men, through 
various kinds and degrees of ill-success, reveal a 
mental capacity that is more or less below the 
average. And along with these numerous mod- 
erate variations from the common level we meet 
in every age with a few extreme variations, — 
men of giant intelligence, such as Darwin or 
Helmholtz, who rise as far above the average of 
the race as idiots and cretins sink below it. 

Now the moth with his proboscis twice as long 
as the average, or the man eight feet in height, 
is what we call a spontaneous variation, and 
the Darwin or the Helmholtz is what we call 
a‘genius;”’ and the analogy between the two 
kinds of deviation is obvious enough. But obvi- 


ously, too, the individual which we single out as a 
12 


178 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


spontaneous variation is in no wise essentially dif- 
ferent from his fellow-individuals. If five feet 
and eight inches be the normal height of a race 
of men, the man who measures six feet is a vari- 
ation as much as he who measures eight, — only 
the one instance does not attract our attention, 
and the other does. In any species whatever, the 
greater number of individuals are no doubt va- 
riations, either in one respect or in another. 
Throughout nature, where a great number of 
mutually-balancing forces cooperate to produce a 
set of results, we are likely to find the results dis- 
tributed about a certain average, very much like 
the shots at a target. <A little way from the 
centre there is a spot where the shots are thickly 
gathered; some few have hit the bull’s-eye ; some 
have been caught away out on the rim; some 
have perhaps flown by without hitting at all. It 
is just the same with the distribution of sizes, 
strengths, forms, or any attributes, physical or 
mental, in a species of animals, or in a race of 
men. ‘These things all differ, according to the 
general laws of deviation from an average ; and 
the forces concerned in the result are so hope- 
lessly complicated —it is so utterly beyond our 
power to unravel them — that this is all we know 
about the matter. We cannot tell why a given 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 179 


moth has a proboscis exactly an inch and a quar- 
ter in length any more than we can tell why 
Shakespeare was a great dramatist. 

I agree, therefore, with Dr. James, that ‘“ the 
causes of production of great men lie in a sphere 
wholly inaccessible to the social philosopher. He 
must simply accept geniuses as data, just as Dar- 
win accepts his spontaneous variations.” The 
problem of the sccial philosopher, undoubtedly, 
so far as he speculates about the influence of 
great men, is to take them for granted, and in- 
quire how far they affect the environment, and 
how far or in what ways the environment affects 
them. Dr. James goes on to assert, with entire 
justice, that the relation of the environment to 
the genius in sociology is strictly analogous to the 
relation of the environment to the variation in 
biology: ‘it chiefly adopts or rejects, preserves or 
destroys, in short selects him.” If environing 
circumstances are such as to render an extra quar- 
ter of an inch of proboscis advantageous to our 
species of moths, then the tendency will be for 
the variations in excess of length of proboscis to 
survive and leave offspring, while the variations 
in the opposite direction are starved out ; so that 
by and by the average in the length of proboscis 
will have been shifted by a quarter of an inch. 


180 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


It may be truly said, in a certain sense, that these 
moths which have varied in the right direction 
have, by being preserved, changed the character 
of the moth society to which they belong. Simi- 
larly with the preservation of the great man, save 
that, in the immensely greater complexity of the 
social problem, the effects are immeasurably more 
multifarious. For the great man, says Dr. James, 
acts as a powerful ferment, unlocking vast reser- 
voirs of force in various directions, and thus alters 
the whole character of his environment, very 
much as the introduction of a new species may 
alter the characters and relations of the fauna and 
flora throughout a whole neighbourhood. Dr. 
James concludes, then, that “the mutations of 
societies from generation to generation are in the 
main due directly or indirectly to the acts or the 
example of individuals whose genius was so 
adapted to the receptivities of the moment, or 
whose accidental position of authority was so crit- 
ical, that they became ferments, initiators of 
movement, setters of precedent or fashion, cen- 
tres of corruption, or destroyers of other persons, 
whose gifts, had they had free play, would have 
led society in another direction.” 

I am careful to emphasize these conclusions of 
Dr. James, because, as far as they go, they are 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 181 


my own, and, I believe, are in general the views 
of that ‘“‘Spencerian or evolutionist school” to- 
ward which Dr. James seems to cherish such an 
intense antipathy. Perhaps I may not be quite 
clear as to what the Spencerian “ school” may 
be. One characteristic of thinkers of such cali- 
bre as Mr. Spencer is that they do not so much 
found schools as bring about a shifting of the in- 
tellectual stand-point and an enlarging of the 
intellectual horizon for the whole contemporary 
world. The ideas of which Mr. Spencer is the 
greatest living exponent are to-day running like 
the weft through all the warp of modern thought, 
and out from their abundant suggestiveness have 
come the opinions of many who do not profess any 
especial “ allegiance ” to Mr. Spencer, — of many, 
even, who are inclined to scoff at the teacher, 
while all unconscious of the debt they owe him. 
But while I cannot undertake to make confident 
assertions as to the views of a Spencerian school, 
I think I may venture to speak with some con- 
fidence as to the attitude of Mr. Spencer himself 
toward the present question. 

So far is Dr. James from realizing how closely 
he has been following in Mr. Spencer’s own line 
of thought that he begins his paper by seeking to 
use a certain alleged opinion of Mr. Spencer as a 


182 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


‘foil’? whereby to set off and illustrate the truth 
of his own statements. The problem before us is, 
“What are the causes that make communities 
change from generation to generation, — that 
make the England of Queen Anne so different 
from the England of Elizabeth, the Harvard 
College of to-day so different from that of thirty 
years ago?” Dr. James replies, “‘ The difference 
is due tothe accumulated influences of individuals, 
of their examples, their initiatives, their decisions.” 
Very good. When taken with the proper quali- 
fication — which I shall presently specify — there 
is nothing in this reply to which Mr. Spencer need 
offer an objection. But according to Dr. James 
the Spencerian school holds that ‘*the changes go 
on irrespective of persons, and are independent of 
individual control. They are due to the environ- 
ment, to the circumstances, the physical geog- 
raphy, the ancestral conditions, the increasing 
experience of outer relations; to everything, in 
fact, except the Grants and the Bismarcks, the 
Joneses and the Smiths.” 

Now if “Mr. Herbert Spencer and his disci- 
ples” really maintain any such astonishing prop- 
osition as this, it must be difficult to acquit them 
of the charge of over-hasty theorizing, to say the 
least; if they do not hold any such view, it will 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 1838 


be difficult to avoid the conclusion that somebody 
has been guilty of over-hasty assertion. To ascer- 
tain Mr. Spencer’s own opinion, one cannot do 
better than to read carefully the third chapter 
of the little book on the ** Study of Sociology.” 
The subject of this chapter is the ‘‘ Nature of the 


’ 


Social Science,” and the first general conclusion 
arrived at is that this science “has in every case 
for its subject-matter the growth, development, 
structure, and functions of the social aggregate, 
as brought about by the mutual actions of individu- 
als, whose natures are partly like those of all men, 
partly like those of kindred races, partly distinct- 
ive.’ After this lucid statement, which in its 
triple specification seems comprehensive enough 
to include the Grants and Bismarcks, as well as 
the Joneses and Smiths, Mr. Spencer goes on to 
say, ‘“ These phenomena of social evolution have 
of course to be explained with due reference to 
the conditions each society is exposed to, — the 
conditions furnished by its locality, and by its re- 
lations to neighbouring societies. Noting this 
merely to prevent possible misapprehensions, the 
fact which here concerns us is that... given 
men having certain properties, and an aggregate 
of such men must have certain derivative proper- 
ties which form the subject-matter of a science.” 


184 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


A deliberate and methodical statement like this, 
forming the burden of half the chapter in which 
Mr. Spencer lays out the ground for his work, 
must of course be received as an authoritative 
expression of his opinion. It will be observed 
that Mr. Spencer takes precisely the same _posi- 
tion as that which is -taken by Dr. James when 
he says that the changes which go on in society 
are ‘due to the accumulated influences of indi- 
viduals, of their examples, their initiatives, their 
decisions.” So decidedly does Mr. Spencer put 
himself in this position that it occurs to him that 
he may possibly be misinterpreted as ignoring the 
influence of environing conditions, and he there- 
fore adds the qualification that in interpreting 
social changes we must make “ due reference ’’ to 
the outward conditions to which society is ex- 
posed. Not even Mr. Spencer's wide experience 
of the infinite possibilities of misconception could 
have led him to suspect that in this instance he 
might be charged with ignoring the individual 
Smiths and Joneses of whom society is composed ! 

This due reference to surrounding conditions is 
the qualification to which I alluded a moment 
ago as necessary to give completeness to Dr. 
James’s statement. When we say that the differ- 
ence between the England of Queen Anne and 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 185 


the England of Queen Elizabeth is due to the 
accumulated influence of the initiatives and de- 
cisions of individuals, to what initiatives and de- 
cisions do we refer? Certainly not to the abortive 
ones; not to those initiatives and decisions that 
had been promptly crushed out or held in check, 
but to those that had been allowed to develop and 
fructify in the great events which make up the 
English history of the seventeenth century. In 
other words, we refer to those individual initi- 
atives and decisions which had been selected for 
preservation by the aggregate of the conditions in 
which English society at that time was placed. 
So that, even in stating the case as Dr. James 
states it, we find ourselves unable to get along 
without tacit reference to the environment. 

It is true that in regarding the changes of soci- 
ety from age to age as due to the cumulative effect 
of individual actions in relation to environing con- 
ditions, one may nevertheless deal with the sub- 
ject practically in more than one way. One 
writer may turn his attention chiefly to the con- 
sideration of those individual variations in opinion 
and conduct which, in our ignorance concerning 
their complex modes of genesis, we call spon- 
taneous variations. Another writer may be more 
deeply interested in pointing out such circum- 


186 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


stances as those of geographical position, of com- 
mercial intercourse, of political cohesiveness, by 
which the broad outlines of history have been 
more or less determined. ‘The two points of view 
seem to me complementary rather than opposed 
to each other, though it is a common fault among 
speculative writers to ignore the existence of all 
the doors that cannot be unlocked with their 
own particular little key. Mr. Bagehot —‘in that 
‘golden little book’ which I admire as much as 
Dr. James does —deals more especially with the 
interior or psychical aspects of the causes of 
changes in society. Mr. Grant Allen, on the other 
hand, is deeply impressed with the manifold and 
remarkable ways in which the histories of nations 
have been affected by their geographical position ; 
though by “geographical position” he means 
something far more considerable than that house- 
hold drudge of superficial writers, the climate: he 
means the entire situation of a nation, strategic, 
industrial, commercial, and literary, in relation to 
other nations. Mr. Allen attaches so much value 
to considerations of this kind that he is led to 
stigmatize Mr. Bagehot’s method as unscientific 
and unfruitful in good result. Mr. Bagehot, as a 
thinker of more catholic mind, would hardly, I 
believe, have been equally ready .to undervalue 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 187 


Mr. Allen’s work. As explanations after the fact 
— which are pretty much the only kind of expla- 
nations we can expect to have where the concrete 
events of history are concerned — speculations like 
those of Mr. Allen are extremely interesting and 
suggestive. I agree in the main, however, with 
Dr. James in his views as to the inadequacy of 
Mr. Allen’s method. It is no doubt true that 
“no geographical environment can produce a 
given type of mind; it can only foster and fur- 
ther certain types, . . . and thwart and frustrate 
others.” No doubt, too, Mr. Allen makes a very 
extravagant statement when he says that “if the 
people who went to Hamburg had gone to Tim- 
buctoo they would now be indistinguishable from 
the semi-barbarian negroes who inhabit that cen- 
tral African metropolis; and if the people who 
went to Timbuctoo had gone to Hamburg they 
would now have been white-skinned merchants 
driving a roaring trade in imitation sherry and in- 
digestible port.” In reading such a statement as 
this, one seems, indeed, to have fallen upon pre- 
Darwinian days ; nay, more, one wonders whether 
Mr. Allen has ever studied as carefully as he 
ought to have done the biological teachings of 
Mr. Spencer, whose opinions Dr. James quotes 
him as representing! 


188 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Mr. Allen has brilliantly illustrated several 
points in connection with the doctrine of evolu- 
tion, more especially in the department of psy- 
chology; but there is no good reason why he 
should be selected for quotation as the represen- 
tative of all Spencerian evolutionists, or why all 
Spencerian evolutionists should be held respon- 
sible for Mr. Allen’s peculiar opinions. The only 
connected outline of Spencerian sociology as yet 
in existence (save what has been published by 
Mr. Spencer himself) is that which is contained 
in the second volume of my “ Outlines of Cosmic 
Philosophy.” That the opinions therein expressed 
harmonize in the main with Mr. Spencer’s I have 
the strongest possible reasons for asserting. Yet 
the line of thought followed in this part of my 
work, and especially in the chapter on ‘ Condi- 
tions of Progress,’ is far more closely parallel 
with Mr. Bagehot’s line of thought than with 
Mr. Allen’s. Separate passages might be cited 
to the same effect; as, for example, where it is 
said (vol. i. p. 199) that the ecclesiastical re- 
forms of Gregory VII. have —in their remote re- 
sults, of course — had more influence upon Amer- 
ican history than the direction of the Rocky 
Mountains or the position of the Great Lakes. 
On the next page, alluding to Mr. Buckle’s theory 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 189 


that the difference in Arabian civilization before 
and after the time of Mohammed was due to the 
difference between the soil of Arabia and that of 
Spain, Persia, and India, I say, “To exhibit the 
utter superficiality of this explanation, we have 
only to ask two questions: First, if the Arabs 
became civilized only because they exchanged 
their native deserts for Spain, Persia, and India, 
why did not the same hold true of the Turks 
when they exchanged their barren steppes for the 
rich empire of Constantinople? Though they 
have held for four centuries what is perhaps the 
finest geographical position on the earth’s sur- 
face, the Turks have never directly aided the 
progress of civilization. Secondly, how was it 
that the Arabs ever came to leave their native 
deserts, and to conquer the region between the 
Pyrenees and the Ganges? Was it because of a 
geologic convulsion? Was it because the soil, the 
climate, the food, or the general aspect of nature 
had undergone any sudden change? One need 
not be a profound student of history to see the 
absurdity of such a suggestion. It was because 
their minds had been greatly wrought upon by 
new ideas; because their conceptions of life, its 
duties, its aims, its possibilities, had been revo- 
lutionized by the genius of Mohammed. ‘The 


190 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


whole phenomenon requires a psychological, not 


a physical, explanation.” 


And again (vol. i. p. 
237), 1n speaking of Comte,—a writer whose 
views of history were sometimes profound, though 
his philosophic position was diametrically oppo- 
site to that of Mr. Spencer and the evolutionists, 
— I say, “ He did not fall into the error that in- 
dividual genius and exertion are of little or no 
account in modifying the course of history. He 
did not forget that history is made by individual 
men, as much as a coral reef is made by indi- 
vidual polyps. Each contributes his infinitesimal 
share of effort; nor is the share of effort always so 
trifling. Considering the course of history merely 
as the resultant of the play of moral forces, is 
there not in a Julius Cesar or a Themistokles as 
large a manifestation of the forces which go to 
make history as in thousands of common men?” 

These views of mine, as being the opinions of 
a “disciple” of Mr. Spencer, may perhaps be set 
off against those which Dr. James quotes from 
Mr. Allen. They seem to me to be quite in har- 
mony with the whole spirit of Mr. Spencer’s phi- 
losophy,! but it would be very difficult to find, 
anywhere in Mr. Spencer’s writings, anything 


1 T have since been assured by Mr. Spencer that I have throughout 
this argument correctly represented his position. 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 191 


that would serve as a justification for Mr. Allen’s 
extraordinary statement about the Timbuctoo ne- 
groes and the merchants of Hamburg. 

Dr. James, however, does quote from Mr. Spen- 
cer one passage which seems to him to ignore or 
to underrate the importance of individual initi- 
ative as an agent in the production of social 
changes. But when carefully considered in con- 
nection with its context, this passage does not ap- 
pear to be responsible for the direful corollaries 
which Dr. James has deduced from it. Com- 
menting on the “great-man theory” of history, 
especially as held by Carlyle, Mr. Spencer reit- 
erates in his peculiar language the familiar criti- 
cism that after all the great man is a “ product of 
the age.”’ ‘The genesis of the great man,” says 
he, “depends on the long series of complex in- 
fluences which has produced the race in which he 
appears, and the social state into which that race 
has slowly grown. ... All those changes of which 
he is the proximate initiator have their chief 
causes in the generations he descended from.”’ 
In saying this, Mr. Spencer-does not imply that 
the individual initiative of the great man is of no 
account; nor does he imply that in order to in- 
terpret the social phenomena of a given epoch it 
is needful to seek for the causes of the produc- 


192 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


tion of its great men in that physiological sphere 
“which is wholly inaccessible to the social phi- 


b) 


losopher;”’ nor does he imply that it was owing 
to any “convergence of sociological pressures ” 
in the England of 1564 that a ‘“‘ W. Shakespeare, 
with all his mental peculiarities,” happened to be 
born at Stratford-on-Avon, in that year. In some 
of those omitted sentences of the passage cited 
which Dr. James represents by dots, Mr. Spencer 
indicates very clearly what he means. He re- 
minds us that by no possibility could a Newton 
be born of Hottentot parents, or an Aristotle 
“come from a father and mother with facial 


’ and further that, even 


angles of fifty degrees ;’ 
supposing it possible for a Watt to be born in a 
tribe unacquainted with the use of iron, his in- 
ventive genius would be likely to effect but little. 
Dr. James himself alleges parallel truths: as that 
after a Voltaire you cannot have a Peter the Her- 
mit, or that under the social conditions of the 
tenth century a John Stuart Mill would have 
been impossible. 

Now the bearing of these considerations upon 
the question which Mr. Spencer is discussing is 
obvious. If it be true that a genius of a given 
kind can appear under certain social conditions, 
and not under others, as a Newton among civilized 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 193 


Englishmen, but not among Hottentots ; or if it be 
true that a given genius can work out its results 
under certain social conditions, and not under 
others, as a Mill in the nineteenth century, but 
not in the tenth; then it follows that in order to 
understand the course of history from age to age 
the mere study of the personal characteristics and 
achievements of great men is not sufficient. Car- 
lyle’s method of dealing with history, making it 
a mere series of prose epics, has many merits, 
but it is nevertheless, from a scientific point of 
view, inadequate; it does not explain the course 
of events. History is something more than biog- 
raphy. Without the least disrespect to the mem- 
ories of the great statesmen of Greece and Rome, 
it may safely be said that one might learn all of 
‘¢ Plutarch’s Lives” by heart, and still have made 
very little progress toward comprehending the 
reasons why the Greek states were never able to 
form a coherent political aggregate, or why the 
establishment of despotism at Rome was involved 
in the conquest of the Mediterranean world. 
The true way to approach such historical prob- 
lems as these is not to speculate about the per- 
sonal characteristics of Lysander or C. Gracchus, 
but to consider the popular assemblies of the 


Greeks and Romans in their points of likeness 
13 


194 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and unlikeness to the folkmotes and parliaments 
of England and the town-meetings of Massachu- 
setts. Since the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury the revolution which has taken place in the 
study of history is as great and as thorough as 
the similar revolution which, under Mr. Darwin’s 
guidance, has been effected in the study of bi- 
ology. The interval in knowledge which sepa- 
rates a Freeman in 1880 from a Macaulay in 1850 
is as great as the interval which separated Dalton 
and Davy from the believers in phlogiston. Yet 
in the principal works by which this immense 
change has been brought about — such as the 
works of Maine and Stubbs, Coulanges and Mau- 
rer — biography plays either an utterly subordi- 
nate part or no part at all. 

Now the passage on the great-man theory, 
which Dr. James quotes from Mr. Spencer, is a 
protest against the alleged adequacy of the 
method of Carlyle. Important as the “ great 
man” may be, it is not his individual thoughts 
and actions which primarily concern the sociolo- 
gist. The truths with which sociology primarily 
concerns itself are general truths relating to the 
structure of society and the functions of its vari- 
ous parts; and they are obtained from a com- 
parative and analytical survey of the actions of 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 195 


great masses of men, considered on a scale where 
all matters of individual idiosyncrasy are aver- 
aged, and for the purposes of the inquiry elimi- 
nated. Such questions as relate to the structure 
of the family in different stages of civilization, to 
the relations of the various classes of society to 
the governing body, to the circumstances which 
hinder or favour the aggregation of tribes into na- 
tions, — it is such problems as these that mainly 
concern the student of sociology ; and into such 
problems biographical considerations do not enter, 
any more than they enter into the study of politi- 
cal economy. Political economy deals with the 
actions of men in great masses in so far solely as 
the production and distribution of wealth are con- 
cerned, and its conclusions remain equally true, 
no matter whether a genius or a dunce presides 
over the national finances. That a protective 
tariff is an indirect tax levied upon an entire com- 
munity, for the personal benefit of a few mem- 
bers of the community, is an economical truth 
that is quite independent of the particular finan- 
cial schemes or legislative acts of particular great 
men. So—to take one from that class of facts 
in political history with which the student of 
sociology is especially concerned — it is very clear 


that if a primary assembly, like the New England 


196 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


town - meeting, is confined within narrow geo- 
graphical limits, so that people can easily attend 
to it, it will be likely to remain a folkmote, or 
primary assembly ; but if it is spread over a wide 
area, so that people cannot conveniently come to 
the meetings, it will tend either to shrink into a 
witanagemote, or assembly of notables, or to de- 
velop into a representative assembly. ‘This is a 
proposition derived from our general experience 
of the way in which people behave under given 
conditions, and confirmed by a wide historical in- 
duction. Yet the implications of this simple prop- 
osition, when once fully unfolded, will go farther 
toward explaining the differences between Greek 
and Roman political history, on the one hand, and 
English political history, on the other, than would 
the exhaustive biography of all the Greek and 
Roman and English statesmen that have ever 
lived, from lLykurgos and Servius Tullius to 
Gladstone. The study of sociology, in short, is 
primarily concerned with instztutions rather than 
with zndividuals. The sociologist does not need 
to undervalue in any way the efficiency of individ- 
ual initiative in determining the concrete course 
of history; but the kind of propositions which 
he seeks to establish are general propositions, re- 
lating to the way in which masses of men act 
under given conditions. 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 197 


Here, in conclusion, we may call attention to a 
broad distinction between the study of sociology 
and the study of history, which, when duly con- 
sidered, will throw much light upon the points 
in Mr. Spencer’s doctrine by whjch Dr. James 
seems to have been puzzled. ‘The distinction to 
which I allude is one which may be most fitly 
illustrated by a reference to the study of geology. 
The philosophical geologist assumes as data the 
various physical and chemical properties of the 
substances of which the earth’s surface is com- 
posed, and by reasoning from these data, with the 
aid of all the concrete facts which observation 
can gather, he constructs his theory of the actual 
changes which the earth’s surface has undergone, 
or will undergo, under given conditions. In so 
far as his knowledge of the physical and chemical 
properties of matter is exhaustive, and in so far 
as his judgment is sound, his conclusions with re- 
gard to the general course of geological events 
will be correct. He can even foretell, in outline, 
what kind of effects will be likely to be produced 
by a given set of geological causes. But when it 
comes to predicting, with minute and exhaustive 
accuracy, the geological future of any particular 
spot on the earth’s surface, he is foiled, through 
inability to compass all the conditions of the 


198 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


concrete case. And likewise, if he is asked to 
give the precise physical history of any particular 
spot on the earth, his conclusions, though sound 
in principle, may be inadequate, because he may 
not have gained control of all the special facts 
required for this individual case. So, although 
geology is unquestionably a legitimate science, it 
is nevertheless a science which must deal chiefly 
with explanations after the fact; it can seldom 
or never be possible for the geologist to lay down 
general principles which will be sure to fit every 
case that may arise. 

Just so with sociology. The philosophical stu- 
dent of sociology assumes as data the general and 
undisputed facts of human nature, and with the 
aid of all such concrete facts as he can get from 
history he constructs his theory of the general 
course of social evolution, — of the changes which 
societies have undergone, or will undergo, under 
given conditions. If his work has been properly 
done, he can go so far as to foretell what kind of 
result is likely to be produced by a given course 
of political action. But when it comes to pre- 
dicting the future of any particular society for 
the next ten years, he is sure to be foiled, through 
inability to take in the infinitely complex condi- 
tions of the concrete case. And in like manner, 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 199 


when he is called upon to interpret the past his- 
tory of society, he cannot expect to do more than 
to render explanations after the fact. In order to 
gain control, moreover, of all the special facts re- 
quired for the interpretation of each particular 
case, he must take into account the personal 
idiosyncrasies of the great men by whom the con- 
crete course of history has been determined. For 
example, given the political constitution of Rome 
in the third century before Christ, and the trans- 
formation of that constitution into an imperial 
despotism can be shown to have been an inevit- 
able consequence of the conquest of a large num- 
ber of surrounding nations by a society so con- 
stituted. It was a consequence which not even 
the practical genius of Cesar — the greatest, no 
doubt, that has ever been seen on the earth — 
could have possibly averted, had all its unrivalled 
power been thrown in that direction. But grant- 
ing that this general course of development was 
inevitable, the future course of European history 
was certainly very different, as initiated by 
Cesar, from what it would have been if initiated 
by Sulla or Pompeius. When once this distinc- 
tion between the stand-point of the sociologist 
and the stand-point of the historian is thoroughly 
grasped, one can find no difficulty in comprehend- 


200 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ing Mr. Spencer’s attitude toward the great-man 
theory. If the purpose of the sociologist were to 
construct concrete history from an @ priori point 
of view, then he would undoubtedly need to in- 
quire into the mode of genesis of each individual 
genius, and to take every one of its peculiarities 
into the account. No such science as this is pos- 
sible to-day, and it is not likely that any such 
science will ever be possible; nothing short of 
omniscience could compass its problems. As it is, 
the task of the sociologist is confined to the ascer- 
tainment of truths relating to the actions of men 
in aggregates. It is for the historian to make use 
of such general truths in interpreting the actions 
of particular men; and it is the greater extent to 
which recent historians have been able to employ 
sociological generalization that 1s making the his- 
torical writing of to-day so much more satisfac- 
tory and profound than the historical writing of a 
generation ago. ‘This increased use of sociology, 
this more frequent and conscious reference to the 
‘“ conditions,” the “ environment,” and all that 
sort of thing, does not make the modern historian 
less mindful of the reverence due to great men. 
On the contrary, it enhances his appreciation of 
them through his more profound knowledge of 
the conditions under which they have worked. 


Sociology and Hero- Worship. 201 


As an example I may refer to the way in which 
the life of Cesar has been treated respectively by 
Froude and by Mommsen. To both these writers 
Cesar is the greatest hero that has ever lived, 
and both do their best to illustrate his career. 
Both, too, have done their work well. But Mr. 
Froude has profited very little by the modern 
scientific study of social phenomena, and _ his 
method is in the main the method of Carlyle. 
Mommsen, on the other hand, is saturated in 
every fibre with “science,” with *“ sociology,” 
with the “ comparative method,”’ with the “study 
of institutions.” As a result of this difference, 
we find that Mr. Froude quite fails to do justice 
to the very greatest part of all Ceesar’s work, 
namely, the reconstructive measures of the last 
years of his life, which Mommsen has so ad- 
mirably characterized in his profound chapter on 
the Old Republic and the New Monarchy. Or, 
if still more striking proof be needed that the 
scientific study of the evolution of society is not 
incompatible with the highest possible estimate 
of the value of individual initiative, | may cite 
the illustrious example of Mr. Freeman. Of all 
the historians now living, Mr. Freeman is the 
most thoroughly filled with the scientific spirit, 
and he has done more than any other to raise the 


202 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


study of history on toa higher level than it has 
ever before occupied. His writings in great part 
read like an elaborate commentary on the doc- 
trine of evolution, — a commentary the more 
valuable, in one sense, in that Mr. Freeman owns 
no especial allegiance to Mr. Spencer or to any 
general evolutionary philosophy. Yet this great 
historian, whose opinions are determined every- 
where by the sociological study of institutions, 
turns out to be at the same time as ardent a 
hero-worshipper as Carlyle himself, — and vastly 
more intelligent. 


October, 1880. 


VII. 
HEROES OF INDUSTRY.! 


LAst of all, in our gallery of heroes, come 
the heroes of industrial civilization, — the bold 
explorers who have enlarged the area of the civil- 
ized world, and the men who by inventive genius 
have added to the number and complexity of the 
processes whereby human wants are satisfied. In 
one sense it was doubtless well to place this group 
of heroes last; for, while the groups of greatest 
poets and founders of religions carry us back into 
an almost mythical antiquity ; and while art, phi- 
losophy, history, science, and politics have each 
and all of them their illustrious representatives 
in ancient as well as in modern times; on the 
other hand, we find that all the discoverers and 
inventors who have been thought worthy to be 


1 Preface to the eighth volume of The Hundred Greatest Men; 
Portraits reproduced from Fine and Rare Engravings, London, 1880. 
8 vols. 4to. The eighth volume contains ‘‘ Inventors and Discoverers.’’ 

I reprint this *‘ preface’’ in this connection, because it affords a good 
illustration of some of the points in the preceding essay on Sociology 
and Hero-Worship. 


204 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


included among the hundred greatest men of his- 
tory belong to modern times. Nor is this curious 
circumstance merely an accident ; on the contrary, 
it affords an apt illustration of one of the most 
striking and important of all the general aspects 
of the history of civilization. It is not true that 
industrial art is later in its beginnings than the 
arts of warfare and statesmanship, or than the in- 
elination toward scientific inquiry. In their most 
rudimentary beginnings all these things were, no 
doubt, nearly simultaneous with each other, as 
well as with art, religion, and poetry. Pre-gla- 
cial men scratched outline pictures of reindeer on 
their crude stone hammers; the first man who ex- 
plained an eclipse as the swallowing of the sun 
by a dragon, propounded an hypothesis of the 
kind by which the beginnings of science and of 
theology are alike characterized ; and poetry and 
music had their humble origin in tales about the 
dead hero, and rhythmical chants and dances in 
propitiation of his ghost. And in like manner 
the ingenious savage of primeval times who first 
discovered that it was easier and safer to float 
across a river on a log, if you hollowed out the 
log, was the legitimate precursor of Fulton and 
Ericsson. But the names of the clever men who 
invented canoes and bows and arrows are as ut- 


Heroes of Industry. 205 


terly unknown to tradition as the names of the 
earliest myth-makers, or of those pre-Homeric 
heroes who won for the Aryan people the rich 
heritage of the southern peninsulas of Europe. It 
was only after civilization had already made con- 
siderable progress, after tribes of men had become 
united into large and stable political aggregates, 
and after the business of society had acquired a 
rather high degree of complexity, that individual 
men could achieve work of any sort on a suffi- 
ciently grand scale to arrest the attention of suc- 
ceeding generations through thousands of years. 
Granting that some pre-Homeric hero may have 
had the native powers of a Hannibal, the fact 
that his achievements did not visibly affect great 
masses of society, but only the movements of a 
few petty tribes, would be enough to prevent his 
fame surviving, save, perhaps, in some vague 
half-intelligible legends about giants and demi- 
gods. But after the historical period, in the long 
career of nascent humanity, had fairly begun — 
after great societies had been formed, with gen- 
erals and statesmen, poets and artists, and even 
philosophers — a long time had still to elapse be- 
fore anything was heard of inventors of giant 
calibre and wonderful achievements like Ark- 
wright and Watt. And this fact has in history a 
marked significance. 


206 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


Before inventors of this sort were possible, it 
was necessary, in the first place, that society 
should have reached a state of comparative sta- 
bility politically. The ages which witnessed the 
exploits of a Belisarius, a Pepin, or a Godfrey de 
Bouillon, were ages in which neither a Columbus 
nor a Gutenberg was possible. Amid such chronic 
political turmoil, there was no surplus energy 
which could be devoted to the exploration and 
colonization of remote countries, nor was there 
enough security for industry at home to permit 
the adoption of new devices for facilitating indus- 
trial processes. In the second place, it was nec- 
essary both that commercial operations should 
have begun to cover a wide geographical range, 
and that the physical sciences should have made 
considerable progress. The application of both 
these considerations to the case of a discoverer 
like Columbus is obvious enough ; but both are 
equally applicable to the case of such an inventor 
as Arkwright. Supposing that such a man could 
have been produced, and could have invented his 
spinning machine in the age of Augustus or of 
Trajan, no such results would have followed as 
were brought about a hundred years ago in Eng- 
land. The general knowledge of machinery was 
insufficient, and the general extension of com- 


Heroes of Industry. 207 


merce was also insufficient. And so it follows, in 
the third place, that when men of the intellectual 
calibre of Watt and Arkwright were born in such 
a state of society as that of ancient Rome, their 
attention was turned to other things, and not to 
the mechanical arts; they became statesmen or 
lawyers, poets or philosophers, but not inventors 
on a grand scale. There was no lack of inven- 
tive talent on the part of the ancients, especially 
as applied to processes of warfare, as was illus- 
trated by the skilful devices with which the Ro- 
mans, in the first Punic war, wrought such whole- 
sale destruction on the Carthaginian fleets. But 
the men who devised these remarkable engines, 
though they effected an important temporary pur- 
pose, accomplished nothing toward extending per- 
manently the control of mankind over the forces 
of nature, or toward modifying the career of in- 
dustry ; and so they are not remembered among 
the great inventors. The explanation of the non- 
appearance of Watts and Arkwrights in ancient 
times is not to be found, therefore, in any assumed 
lack of inventive talent, but in the social condi- 
tions which prevailed in antiquity and down to 
the close of the Middle Ages. 

But there is a still more striking historic sig- 
nificance in the relatively late appearance of the 


208 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


heroes of industry. The paucity of inventors in 
antiquity, and their increasing frequency in mod- 
ern times, serves as the index of a great change 
that has been slowly taking place in the prevail- 
ing character of human activity. Whereas the 
basis of civilization was once mainly military, it 
has now become mainly industrial. Whereas the 
occupation of the greater part of mankind was 
once fighting and pillage, it is now the peaceful 
cultivation of the earth and the transformation 
of the earth’s various productions into endlessly 
complex instruments for satisfying human wants, 
both physical and esthetic. Warfare has long 
been necessary for the purpose of securing and 
maintaining the political stability of great masses 
of men, without which industry itself could not 
attain to any high development. From this point 
of view, warfare has not yet ceased to be neces- 
sary, especially where civilized societies are mo- 
lested or threatened by barbarous societies, and 
no doubt it will be a long time before warfare be- 
comes extinct; but, in spite of this, the sphere of 
warfare in modern life has become very much re- 
stricted. In such countries as England and the 
United States, it takes up the time and attention 
of only a very small part of the community, and 
only at considerable intervals acts as a real dis. 


Heroes of Industry. 209 


turbance to the prevailing occupations, which are 
almost entirely concerned, directly or indirectly, 
with industry. The enormous complication of 
modern society, which has been mainly brought 
about by the labours of industrial discoverers and 
inventors, in codperation with scientific inquirers, 
has brought things to such a pass that men are 
more and more unwilling to engage in warfare. 
The disturbance which it works, though slight 
compared with the chronic misery which it in- 
flicted in earlier times, is now beginning to be 
regarded as unendurable. And along with the 
diminution of the quantity of warfare, and the 
restriction of its sphere, there has gone on a grad- 
ual alteration in the feelings and in the manners 
of civilized men. This change has been shown in 
increased regard for domestic comfort, in the ab- 
olition of judicial torture and of cruel modes of 
punishment, in prison reforms, and generally in 
increased softness of temper and mildness of man- 
ner. That this change is due to the general sub- 
stitution of industrial for military activity, is too 
obvious to require detailed argument; yet, when 
duly considered in all its bearings, the connection 
of this change with human happiness will be 
found to be so close that, even had nothing else 


been accomplished by the inauguration of the in- 
14 


210 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


dustrial era, we should still have ample ground 
for regarding the great discoverers and inven- 
tors as among the chief benefactors of mankind. 
Though last in order, we can in no wise rank 
them as least in noble desert. 

November, 1880. 


Aid Be 
THE CAUSES OF PERSECUTION. 


In the first series of his admirable essays on 
contemporary literature, M. Scherer reminds us 
that in 1841 Lacordaire wrote a biography of 
Saint Dominic, in order to prove that he was not 
the founder of the Inquisition. ‘Strange are the 
vicissitudes of opinion,” observes the critic. ‘The 
Bollandists saw a title of honour where the mod- 
ern Dominican sees a blemish which he would fain 
wipe away. While the former scornfully asked 
what there can be criminal or shameful in deliver- 
ing heretics to the torture, Lacordaire complains 
of the calumnies which have injured, in the eyes 
of posterity, the reputation of the chief of his 
order.” 1! ‘The case is indeed a striking one; but 
the vicissitudes of opinion which it illustrates are 
in no way temporary or accidental, but are symp- 
tomatic of a general and progressive change in the 
tempers and opinions of civilized men. The inter- 
val of a century or more between the earlier Bol- 


1 ftudes sur la littérature contemporaine, i. 159. 


212 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


landists and Lacordaire marked a new era in this 
change of temper, in so far as persecution, while 
josing much of its old cruel intensity, became also 
discredited and disavowed. It was during this 
interval that Lessing's theory of the relative truth 
of opinions, which destroyed the logical basis of 
persecution, began to make its way among culti- 
vated minds. Though the persecuting spirit has 
not yet ceased to influence men’s actions, it is no 
longer regarded asa trait to be proud of, but seeks 
to hide itself under specious disguises. Its mani- 
festations, too, have become correspondingly fee- 
ble. The heretic who once would have been 
racked, thumb-screwed, and burned for writing an 
obnoxious life of Jesus is now only requested to 
resign his professorship in the Collége de France, 
while nobody thinks of such a thing as confiscat- 
ing the book or cutting off from the author his 
share of the proceeds of its immense sale. The 
decline of persecution is in these respects anal- 
ogous to the simultaneous decline in the warlike 
spirit. Warfare, once regarded as the only fitting 
occupation for well-bred men, has come to be re- 
garded not only as an intolerable nuisance, but 
even as a criminal business, save when justified 
on the ground of self-defence. And along with 
this change in the moral estimate of warfare, we 


The Causes of Persecution. ~. 213 


observe that whereas the capture of a town not 
long ago was invariably followed by a carnival 
of red-handed slaughter and bestial lust, it is now 
thought unfair to kill the pigs or chickens of a 
non-combatant enemy without at least professing 
to pay for them. These phenomena are happy 
symptoms of a general improvement in the way 
men think and feel; and they give one some rea- 
son for hoping that in due course of time such 
ugly things as war and persecution will cease to 
be numbered among the actual difficulties which 
beset human life. 

This general improvement in opinion and tem- 
per, when stated with proper limitations as to 
time and place, is admitted by every one; and it 
has become an interesting task to analyze it and 
determine the various circumstances to which it is 
due. How does it happen that while the repre- 
sentatives of the current orthodoxy would once 
have roasted you with pious exultation, they are | 
now fain to content themselves with turning you 
out of an office, and with an apologetic air at that? 

This question was incidentally treated by the 
late Mr. Buckle, in the book which, twenty years 
ago, was so stimulating to many youthful minds. 
Mr. Buckle laid it down as one of the cardinal 
points of his theory of history that civilized men 


214 . Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


have not improved morally but only intellectually. 
That on the whole civilized men manage to live 
in a more peaceable and becoming manner than 
barbarians, he did not deny; but he thought it 
necessary for the general purposes of his theory to 
maintain that this progress has been due entirely 
to increase in knowledge, and not at all to im- 
provement in ethical feeling. His principal argu- 
ment in support of this thesis is taken from the 
history of persecution. He calls attention to the 
curious circumstance that, in the early struggle 
between Christianity and Paganism, it was not 
the infamous Commodus and Elagabalus, but the 
pure and upright Marcus and Julian who perse- 
cuted the new religion. And so, in modern times, 
many of the extremest bigots have been distin- 
euished for integrity of character and elevation 
of purpose, — as St. Dominic, Isabella of Castile, 
Carlo Borromeo, Calvin, and Caraffa. Mr. Buckle 
accordingly argues that religious persecution has 
been the product of some of the best impulses 
of human nature when guided by an erroneous 
theory of duty. The wretched Commodus cared 
nothing for religion or for anything else save his 
sensual pleasures; and so Christian and Pagan 
were all one to him. But his noble father, Mar- 
cus, had the interests of religion uppermost in his 


The Causes of Persecution. 215 


heart ; and so, in spite of his humane disposition, 
he felt it necessary-to use violent means in put- 
ting down such an aggressive heresy as Chris- 
tianity was then regarded. So, in later times, 
when persecution was prevalent among Christian 
sects, the general rule was that those who believed 
in the dogma of exclusive salvation were perse- 
cutors, no matter to what sect they belonged. Of 
this belief, persecution is, no doubt, under any 
circumstances, the natural outcome. He who be- 
lieves that his neighbor’s heresy is destined to be 
punished after death by excruciating tortures of 
infinite duration, will not scruple to use the most 
violent means for rescuing him from his perilous 
condition. Obviously, such a conclusion may be 
entertained without sophistry. Once admit that 
salvation is possible only within the limits of your 
own sect, and it may well be argued that you are 
bound, in benevolence if not in justice, to compel 
all dissenters to “ enter in” to that sect. If perse- 
cution be needful to obtain such an object, then, 
on this view of the case, it would really be hard- 
hearted to refrain from using it. If pulleys and 
thumb-screws can substitute eternal happiness for 
future torments like those described by Dante, 
then pulleys and thumb-screws are instruments of 
charity and kindness. On this view of the case, 


216 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


the typical religious persecutor is a man in whom 
unselfish philanthropy has become such an un- 
controllable impulse that, no matter how great the 
violence to his natural feelings of humanity, he 
will not hesitate to employ the most rigorous and 
appalling measures to restrain his fellow-creatures 
from incurring the risk of endless misery. Such 
men exist to-day, as formerly, mankind having 
remained substantially unchanged in their moral 
condition. But they no longer use such rigorous 
and appalling means of constraining the opinions 
of their fellow-creatures, because —for one thing 
— they have not the power to do so. And they 
have lost the power to do so, because such a gen- 
eral scepticism has come to pervade the commu- 
nity that the dogma of exclusive salvation has 
become discredited. The decline of persecution 
has therefore — according to Mr. Buckle — been 
determined solely by intellectual causes, and does 
not indicate any improvement in the average char- 
acter or advance in the ethical knowledge of man- 
kind. 

In this view there is some truth, but it is so 
mixed up with error that the total statement is of 
little worth. That the growth of scepticism, or 
increasing lack of certainty about transcendental 
opinions, has had much to do with diminishing 


The Causes of Persecution. 217 


religious persecution, is not to be denied. But 
that the average persecutor is a man whose horrid 
actions are dictated by an unselfish interest in the 
welfare of his fellow-men, is a much more ques- 
tionable proposition. It has not been customary 
to credit religious bigotry with such lofty mo- 
tives, — if motives prompting such atrocious ac- 
tions can at all properly be called lofty, — and 
we do not find Mr. Buckle disposed to be par- 
ticularly lenient in his judgment of individual 
persecutors, whatever general statements the sup- 
posed exigencies of his theory may have led him 
to make. When he comes to treat of the bigoted 
Scotch divines of the seventeenth century, he is 
only too ready to charge them with moral per- 
versity as well as with intellectual ignorance and 
obtuseness. This is very inconsistent; but in- 
consistency can hardly be avoided when one starts 
with such a singularly half-true theory as that 
which Mr. Buckle propounded. 

Mr. Buckle’s fundamental error lay in the at- 
tempt to assign distinct parts to elements of hu- 
man nature that in reality cannot be separated. 
For didactic or school-room purposes it is well 
enough to consider separately the intellectual and 
moral faculties of man. But when we come to 
examine concretely any actual group of human 


218 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


phenomena, it is hopelessly futile to try to con- 
sider intelligence and moral disposition as work- 
ing separately, or to assign to each its kind and 
amount of effects. In point of fact they never 
do work separately, but their combinations are so 
manifold and intricate that the disentangling of 
effects becomes impossible. When we look at 
things rather than words, we see that every 
complex question of morals is largely also a ques- 
tion of intelligence, and conversely. For ex- 
ample, let us consider what political economists 
call the “ effective desire of accumulation.” Asa 
rule all men desire to make money, or to increase 
their general contro] over the circumstances which 
make life comfortable or pleasurable; but the 
effectiveness of this desire is very different with 
different individuals, and it is immeasurably more 
effective in the case of civilized men than in the 
case of barbarians. The savage cannot be made 
to work to-day in anticipation of wants that are 
not actually felt at present ; but the civilized man 
will even devote a hundred or a thousand dol- 
lars’ worth of labour every year to ward off the 
mere possibility of a loss by fire which is by no 
means likely to occur. This tendency to provide 
for future contingencies is at the root of what is 
called the ‘‘ effective desire of accumulation,” and 


The Causes of Persecution. 219 


it furnishes one of the most conspicuous of all the 
distinctions between civilized men and savages. 
The progress of mankind in civilization has been 
to a large extent identical with the growth of this 
tendency. But, now, how far has this been an in- 
tellectual, and how far a moral progress? On the 
one hand, it may be argued that the ability to 
labour and to economize to-day in anticipation of 
future contingencies is an index of self-control or 
of power to resist momentary temptations; and 
in so far as this is true, the increase of the ‘ ef- 
fective desire of accumulation” is an index of the 
degree to which civilized men have risen morally 
above the dead level of savagery. But, on the 
other hand, it is undeniable that such a purely in- 
tellectual faculty as imagination has a great deal 
to do with this ability to anticipate future emer- 
gencies. A savage does not work to-day in order 
to keep the wolf from his door next winter, be- 
cause he cannot frame in his mind an adequate 
picture of what next winter is going to be. The 
temptations of to-day he vividly realizes; but of 
the needs of next winter he can form no mental 
image distinct or vivid enough to determine his 
actions. So with the careless, improvident man 
— who is to that extent a barbarian — in civilized 
society. No honest man would ever voluntarily 


220 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


run up a bill, to be paid on the uncertain chances 
of his income six months hence, if he could ad- 
equately represent to himself, in imagination, 
the discomfort or even misery which after six 
months the bill is liable to produce. J am not 
speaking now of such pecuniary obligations as are 
sometimes thrust upon persons by circumstances 
over which they have no discoverable means of 
control. I refer only to such obligations as are 
commonly incurred in civilized society through 
excess of unproductive expenditure, or what is 
currently known and stigmatized as ‘ extrava- 
gance.” The results of extravagant expenditure, 
especially as connected with the system of “ liv- 
ing upon credit,” form a very large proportion of 
the miseries by which modern society is afflicted : 
if all the secrets of society could be laid open for 
inspection, we should perhaps marvel at the 
amount of unhappiness which is traceable directly 
or indirectly to this cause. Yet the reckless as- 
sumption of pecuniary obligations does not or- 
dinarily originate in dishonesty of intention. 
There can be no doubt that it ordinarily orig- 
inates in mental incapacity to form a distinct 
and accurate conception of the future results of 
to-day’s actions, codperating with that comfort- 
able assurance that things will somehow or other 


The Causes of Persecution. 221 


come out right, which nearly all men persist in 
cherishing. The lazy belief that in some un- 
specified way things will so adjust themselves as 
to prevent the natural consequences of a wrong 
or foolish act, is a very common fallacy, upon 
which George Eliot is especially fond of comment- 
ing. This belief, which is responsible for so 
much imprudence and for so much crime, is itself 
the product of defects that are partly intellectual 
and partly moral. It arises partly from a slothful- 
ness of temper which shrinks from the discomfort 
of dealing with unpleasant facts, and partly from 
inability to think out complicated relations of 
cause and effect. Thus deeply and widely in- 
wrought with every phase of the moral power of 
resisting temptation, is that purely intellectual 
power which we may call “ representativeness ” 
— that is, the power of forming distinct and vivid 
mental pictures of circumstances which have not 
yet begun to exist, or are at any rate remote from 
us at the present moment. Other things equal, 
the man who has this power of ‘“representative- 
ness” most fully developed is most likely to ex- 
hibit self-control amid the myriad temptations of 
life. Yet in spite of the highly composite char- 
acter of the process by which the habit of self- 
control is reached, the result is a purely ethical 


222 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


result — a result which we estimate solely with 
reference to its bearing upon the welfare of soci- 
ety. And accordingly, when we praise a man 
for prudence and self-control, we rightly feel that 
we are paying tribute rather to his moral char- 
acter than to his intellectual capacity. 

Such being the inextricable complication of in- 
tellectual and moral processes, even in such a 
comparatively simple case as that of “the effect- 
ive desire of accumulation,’ we need not expect 
to be able to deal satisfactorily with such a com- 
plex affair as the persecuting spirit without tak- 
ing into the account both intellectual and moral 
factors. And in taking both into the account, it 
must be borne in mind that what we have to say 
about the one is necessarily incomplete until men- 
tally supplemented by what we have to say about 
the other. 

The diminution in the intensity of the perse- 
cuting spirit and the diminution in the atrocity of 
its manifestations, alike furnish, when duly ana- 
lyzed, an excellent illustration of the intellectual 
and moral advance of mankind from a state of 
bestial savagery toward a state of refined civiliza- 
tion. Let us consider first, for a moment, the dim- 
inution in the atrociousness of the overt acts by 
which the persecuting spirit has manifested itself; 


The Causes of Persecution. 223 


and afterward let us proceed more thoroughly into 
the consideration of the underlying causes of the 
temper of mind which has led men to persecute 
one another. 

In the lowest stages of human progress which 
the comparative study of institutions has revealed 
to us, there are no great political aggregates of 
men covering large areas of country, supporting 
themselves by complex and multifarious kinds of 
industrial activity, and bound together by varied 
community of interests, guaranteed by laws based 
on the common consent of all. Viewed in rela- 
tion to what we now know about the antiquity of 
the human race, a society like this must be re- 
garded as quite a late and elaborate result of the 
slow process of civilization. In broad contrast to 
anything of this sort, we find mankind in their 
primitive condition — such as we may still find 
it partially exemplified in the institutions of sav- 
age races — existing only in little tribes, support- 
ing themselves almost entirely by predatory occu- 
pations quite like those by which bears and tigers 
support themselves, and perpetually fighting with 
each other for the possession of the hunting- 
grounds that insure their means of subsistence. 
In this primitive bestial state of society, there is 
nothing like a normal state of peace. The near- 


224 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


est approach to peace is a state of armed truce. 
Warfare between tribes goes on chronically, the 
injury which one inflicts upon another being com- 
pensated only by some equivalent injury inflicted 
in revenge. As all the foreign policy of a given 
tribe may be thus summed up in perpetual mur- 
der of men, so its internal industries may be 
mainly summed up in the perpetual slaughter of 
animals that serve for food. Every man is pri- 
marily a butcher. To kill something is the prime 
necessity of life. The direct infliction of death 
or of physical suffering is the principal daily oc- 
cupation of all the members of the community ; 
and, as a correlative effect of all this, the ability 
to meet death or to endure physical suffering 
without flinching is one of the attributes of a 
hero that society prizes most highly. The most 
complete instance of a society of this sort that has 
acquired historic fame is that of the Iroquois of 
New York, in the seventeenth century. But there 
is no doubt that, in all the respects we are now 
considering, our own Aryan ancestors who con- 
quered and settled Europe were substantially like 
the Iroquois. 

Now, in such a state of society as this, it is ob- 
vious that men will inflict pain without the small- 
est compunctions and upon very small provocation. 


The Causes of Persecution. 225 


The feelings with which we regard to-day the 
needless infliction of physical suffering would be 
utterly unintelligible to them. To such men 
murder and torture are common incidents of life, 
which no more interrupt the even tenor of their 
ways than ours are interrupted by railway acci- 
dents. A man born in such a state of society 
expects to meet a violent death, as is shown by 
our own Norse progenitors, who regarded it as dis- 
graceful to die in one’s bed, —and an end which 
a man was willing to encounter himself he might 
readily be supposed to be willing to inflict upon 
others. In this way, I think, the excessive cruelty 
which characterized the persecutions of the Middle 
Ages is completely explained. When we read of 
the frightful tortures inflicted upon Arabs, Jews, 
and Protestants by the Inquisition ; when we re- 
member the fiendish outrages perpetrated by the 
Spanish armies in Holland and by the Imperial 
armies at Magdeburg; when we recollect that in 
Spain an auto-de-fe was one of the most imposing 
ceremonies of the Church, and that, on the mar- 
riage of Philip IL., burning heretics served as 
nuptial torches, we are at first inclined to exclaim 
that such cruelties could never have been. In 
human nature, as we know it to-day, mean and 


bad as it too often is, we do not seem to find any- 
15 


226 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


thing like a parallel to such horrible cruelty as 
this. It has been said that we need but to imag- 
ine the state of mind which attributed a similar 
course of action to Eternal Justice, and conceived 
it as part and parcel of the essential order of the 
universe, to render all this explicable. No doubt 
the self-same ingenuity which men displayed spec- 
ulatively in theological descriptions of the next 
world was also displayed practically in such in- 
ventions as the rack and the boot, the Virgin 
armed with knives, or the cell whose walls grad- 
ually approached each other and crushed the 
wretched prisoner into a jelly. It is signifi- 
cant, too, that execution by fire was openly de- 
fended as being symbolical of the everlasting pun- 
ishment destined for the heretic hereafter. At 
the execution of the lad William Hunter, in 1555, 
as the fagots were set on fire one of the attendant 
priests exclaimed, ‘‘ Behold, as thou burnest here, 
so shalt thou burn in hell!” 

To cite the atrocious theology, however, as the 
sufficient explanation of the atrocious behaviour, 
would be, I think, to invert the relations of cause 
and effect, — in homely phrase, to get the cart be- 
fore the horse. It was only in a cruel age that 
the doctrine of hell-fire could have acquired that 
hold upon men’s minds which it had acquired in 


The Causes of Persecution. 227 


the Middle Ages. In recent times the doctrine 
has become almost universally discredited through- 
out the more enlightened portions of Christendom. 
Even those who maintain a belief in some kind 
of endless punishment, no longer insist literally 
upon the lake of brimstone and the fire that is 
never quenched. Now, the doctrine of hell-fire 
has become thus universally discredited, not be- 
cause it has been scientifically disproved, for 
science has neither data nor methods whereby to 
disprove such a doctrine; nor because it has been 
exegetically shown to be unsupported by Scrip- 
ture, for the ingenuity of orthodox exegesis has 
always been equal to the task of making Scripture 
mean whatever is required; it has been discred- 
ited simply because people have become milder in 
their manners and less used to enduring and in- 
flicting physical pain. ‘The doctrine shocks peo- 
ple’s feelings, and so they refuse to believe it, no 
matter how the logic of the case may stand. The 
sermons of Theodore Parker on the popular the- 
ology well illustrate the change of mood that has 
come over men’s minds with reference to the jus- 
tice of God: the whole burden of these discourses 
is the argument that the infliction of endless suf- 
fering on the creature is incompatible with infi- 
nite justice on the part of the Creator. That 


228 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


such an argument appears sound to-day, whereas 
it would have seemed absurd to the contempora- 
ries of Luther, is due to the self-same widening 
and deepening of human sympathies that have 
put an end to slavery and to judicial torture, that 
have done away with the horrors of Bedlam and 
the “ stone-hold”’ of Newgate, and that have em- 
bodied in the Constitution of the United States 
the injunction that “cruel and unusual punish- 
ment”? must not be inflicted upon criminals. 
Now, this general increase in humanity which 
is discernible throughout the most advanced re- 
gions of Christendom during the past three centu-. 
ries, and which has become especially conspicuous 
in our own time, is undoubtedly consequent upon 
the vast increase of industrial at the expense of 
military activity which has characterized the same 
period. With the gradual aggregation of men 
into great and stable communities, and with the 
accompanying increase in the complexity of social 
life and in the number of wants which labour is 
required to satisfy, the sphere of industry has be- 
come immensely enlarged and the sphere of war- 
fare has become correspondingly restricted. I do 
not forget that great and terrible wars still occur, 
but it remains none the less true that fighting has 
ceased to be recognized as the principal, or even as 


The Causes. of Persecution. 229 


a very considerable, part of the business of society. 
Private warfare, once universal and incessant 
throughout western Europe, has become extinct, 
and in the Northern States of the American Union 
it has never existed. Brigandage survives only in 
out-of-the-way corners of the most backward coun: 
tries of Christendom, such as Spain and Sicily, o= 
else in localities where civilization comes into geo- 
graphical contact with barbarism, as in Thessaly 
and Albania, or on the extreme western frontiers 
of our own country. Duelling has become nearly 
obsolete, and is dealt with as a crime, while the 
so-called code of honour upon which it thrived has 
become an object of general derision. The sword 
is no longer a part of a gentleman’s wardrobe, 
and laws are framed to prevent the carrying of 
daggers and pistols. Only soldiers on parade and 
sportsmen nowadays carry deadly weapons openly. 
While the sportsmanship, moreover, which sim- 
ply inflicts death on bird or beast is still held in 
esteem, emphatic protests are made against the 
sportsmanship which wantonly inflicts pain, as we 
have seen in the controversy about fox-hunting 
between Mr. Freeman and Mr. Trollope. Organ- 
ized societies exist for the protection of domestic 
animals against cruel treatment. Even where it 
is necessary to inflict pain for the purpose of pre- 


230 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


serving life, as in the profession of the surgeon, 
we do all in our power, by the use of anesthetics, 
to reduce the pain to a minimum. And even 
where it is necessary to inflict death as a means of 
protection to life, as in the execution of murderers, 
the dreadful work is done as gently as possible, 
and is kept hidden from the gaze of the public. 

It has thus come to pass that, in such commu- 
nities as England and our own Northern States, 
the majority of individuals may live all their lives 
without ever being called upon to take part in 
putting a fellow-creature to death. Most of us, I 
presume, have never witnessed a violent death, 
and know of such things only by hearsay — only 
by reading the newspapers and books of history. 
The consequence is that a kind of feminine soft- 
ness has come over our tempers —a tenderness 
which shrinks from the very thought of death 
and suffering purposely inflicted as intolerable. 
In military ages any approach to such softness of 
temper was stigmatized as unmanly, and such a 
type of character could not flourish, because it 
was unsuited to the conditions of life in a per- 
petually belligerent community; but in our own 
industrial age this mild type of character is fos- 
tered by all the potency of public approval. But 
it is not only by restricting the sphere of warfare 


The Causes of Persecution. 231 


that our complex industrial civilization has nour- 
ished a temper that shrinks from the infliction of 
pain. Productive activity has operated in this 
way directly, as well as indirectly through re- 
straining destructive activity. Social life has lost 
the half-brutal, half-ascetic aspect befitting ages 
when life was for high and low little more than a 
struggle for existence. It is a trite remark that 
the American labourer to-day possesses many phys- 
ical comforts which a medizeval king was unable 
to secure. Throughout the greater part of civil- 
ized society, the struggle nowadays is not for the 
bare means of subsistence, but for the attainment 
of a certain amount of elegance and luxury. The 
contrast is great between the medizval baron 
who, in time of peace, had no resources but in 
hunting or in tournaments, or in getting drunk, 
and the modern citizen with his theatre and 
opera, his lectures and concerts, his novels and 
magazines lying on the table, his household pic- 
tures and bric-a-brac, his hours of work at his 
office or in the stock-exchange, relieved by the 
quiet domestic enjoyment of the evening. <Ac- 
customed to all this complicated comfort, our 
erowing tendency to shrink from needlessly en- 
countering with what is disagreeable is still fur- 
ther enhanced, and this tendency produces a vis- 


232 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ible effect upon our manners. Whatever savours 
of personal contention, whatever is liable to wound 
the feelings or disgust the senses, is peremptorily 
proscribed in the usages of polite society. Com- 
pared with English and American gentlemen of 
to-day, the gentlemen of Shakespeare’s plays often 
talked like boors or ruffians. 

The diminution in the atrociousness of perse- 
cution, then, is simply one among a hundred il- 
lustrations of the change in men’s tempers that 
has been wrought by the change in men’s occu- 
pations which has characterized the growth of 
modern society. From being predominantly war- 
like and predatory, human activity has come to 
be predominantly pacific and industrial, and out 
of this change have grown our milder beliefs as 
well as our milder manners. 

We have not yet, however, got to the bottom 
of the matter. We have accounted for the de- 
crease in the cruelty with which the persecuting 
spirit has manifested itself, but we have now to 
consider the underlying causes of the temper of 
mind which has led men to persecute one another ; 
we have to show, in particular, how it is that, so 
far as all matters of religious belief are concerned, 
the persecuting spirit has already greatly dimin- 
ished in intensity, and will no doubt eventually 


The Causes of Persecution. 233 


become extinct among civilized men. We shall 
find that the change is deeply inwrought with the 
progress of mankind, both morally and intellect- 
ually. 

The persecuting spirit has its origin morally in 
the disposition of man to domineer over his fel- 
low-creatures, zntellectually in the assumption that 
one’s own opinions are infallibly correct. We 
know very well how children are apt to behave 
when arguing some question of no great conse- 
quence. Their little passions warming with the 
discussion, they pass from argument to abuse, 
they call each other hard names, and, at last, 
they begin to pound each other. Most people, I 
Imagine, must have had experiences of this sort 
in their childhood. I recollect, when quite a lit- 
tle boy, coming to blows with a school-mate over 
the question whether Napoleon really won the 
battle of Eylau. Now the spirit which prompts 
a child to pound his companion who resists him 
in argument is identical with the spirit which 
prompts a man to calumniate, torture, burn, or 
otherwise put down and injure his neighbour who 
refuses to reverence the things which he himself 
deems sacred. The more we reflect upon it the 
more we shall be convinced that at bottom the 
feeling is the same in the two cases, though in the 


234 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


latter it is accompanied and disguised by other 
feelings. Now, what is this feeling but the dis- 
position to domineer, to assert one’s own person- 
ality at the expense of neighbouring personalities, 
—a disposition eminently characteristic of the 
brute and of the savage, but less and less charac- 
teristic of man as he becomes more and more civ- 
ilized ? Bearing this in mind, and remembering 
the fable of the wolf and the lamb — remember- 
ing that a strong passion is never at a loss for 
reasons, and that no one is more thoroughly the 
dupe of the false reasons than the man himself 
who is under the control of the strong passion — 
remembering this, one has the key to a large part 
of the history of persecution. ‘The paradox, as 
regards the ‘“ benevolent persecutors,” 1s a para- 
dox no longer. It becomes explicable how a man 
may sincerely believe himself to be doing God’s 
service, while he is in reality obeying an impulse 
which, in an ultimate analysis, is neither more 
nor less than the impulse to domineer over one’s 
fellow-creatures. ‘Thus, though the plea of mis- 
taken benevolence may now and then be properly 
urged in extenuation of certain special acts of per- 
secution, it cannot excuse persecution, or obscure 
the fact that its diminution is largely due to a 
slow moral progress, — to a decrease in self-asser- 


The Causes of Persecution. 235 


tion, and a concomitant increase in respect for the 
rights of other people. 

Very closely connected with this moral root of 
the persecuting spirit in mere arrogant self-asser- 
tion is its intellectual root, in the assumption that 
one’s own opinions are infallible. That persecu- 
tion can have no theoretical basis or justification, 
save on the assumption that somebody’s opinions 
are infallibly true, has been so thoroughly illus- 
trated by Mr. Mill in his beautiful essay on “ Lib- 
erty,” that I need not dwell here upon this part 

of the subject. It behooves us, however, to con- 
sider in what ways the progress of civilization 
has contributed to weaken the spirit of self-asser- 
tion and the assumption of infallibility. 

Obviously, the disposition to domineer over 
others, to assert one’s own personality at the ex- 
pense of others, is simply one particular phase of 
the disposition to kill one’s enemies which char- 
acterizes human society in its primeval stages of 
development. It is a temper of mind which was 
favoured by the general condition of things when 
there were no political aggregates larger than 
simple tribes which were chronically at war with 
one another. What I have said above, in con- 
sidering the effects upon the atrocity of persecu- 
tion of the substitution cf a normal state of peace 


236 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


for a normal state of warfare, will also apply to 
the present case. The disposition to domineer 
over your fellow-man—to make him obey you or 
assent to your opinions, whether he will or no— 
is only an evanescent phase of the disposition to 
kill him if he interferes in any way with the ac- 
complishment of your purposes in life. The very 
same diminution in the sphere of military activy- 
ity, attendant upon the aggregation of men into 
great and complex political societies, which we 
found to explain the decreasing atrocity of per- 
secution, explains also the decreasing vitality of 
its moral foundation in the disposition to dom- 
ineer over one’s fellow-men. 

The weakening of the assumption of infalli- 
bility in one’s own opinions is manifestly a con- 
sequence of the same set of codperating causes. 
When one’s life is extremely simple and monoto- 
nous, consisting of very few experiences that are 
perpetually repeated; when one is not often com- 
pelled to test the validity of one’s own conclu- 
sions by comparing them with the different con- 
clusions which other people draw from the same 
data; when one lives amid a certain group of be- 
liefs, customs, and observances that are never 
brought into comparison (save, perhaps, in exter- 
minating warfare) with other differing groups ;— 


The Causes of Persecution. 237 


under such conditions as these it is noticeable that 
one’s Opinions are formed with great promptness, 
and when once formed are unchangeable. These 
are the conditions under which the opinions of 
savages are formed, and the chief characteristic in 
the opinions of savages is their wonderful rigid- 
ity; you can no more change them than you 
could teach a fox, when chased by the hunter, to 
climb a tree like a cat. Or, consider the case of 
an ignorant woman, in the lower classes of civ- 
ilized society. Her opinions about men and 
things are formed in an instant, by some mental 
process of which she can render no account, and 
when once formed are utterly impervious to fact 
or to argument. She acts on the tacit assumption 
that she is infallible, precisely as the savage acts. 
To think of hesitating for a moment and ques- 
tioning the validity of their opinions, is some- 
thing which never happens to either of them. 
This is the obstinate fashion in which men 
used to cling to their opinions in that crude state 
of social development in which each little society 
was at war with every other, and in which, ac- 
cordingly, it was impossible to bring a given set 
of opinions into free contact with another set, 
within the limits of one and the same society. 
As men have gradually been brought together 


238 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


into great and complex societies, as their opinions 
have been brought more and more into the focus 
of a common point of comparison, this rigidity of 
the mental processes —so like the rigidity of 
the mental processes of the lower animals — has 
gradually yielded to circumstances such as favour 
flexibility. With the case of the savage or the 
woman who comes to scrub the floor, contrast the 
case of the scientific philosopher, whose opinions 
are slowly formed after a long and careful weigh- 
ing of conflicting evidences, and when once formed 
are held subject to perpetual revision and mod- 
ification. On considering these two contrasted 
cases, it becomes obvious how the aggregation of 
men into great and complex societies, bringing 
with it increased variety of experience and in- 
creased knowledge of the manifold lability to er- 
ror, has operated to destroy the confident assump- 
tion of infallibility which characterizes the bigot 
and the savage. 

We have now made out, I think, a very fair 
explanation of the way in which the persecuting 
spirit has been affected by the general progress 
of human society. But one of the deepest con- 
siderations of all still remains to be treated. 

In the early stages of society, as illustrated by 
such writers as Sir Henry Maine, the wnzt of 


- The Causes of Persecution. 239 


society is not the individual, but the family or 
elan. Ina tribe of primitive savages there is no 
such thing as individual rights or individual ob- 
ligations, in the modern sense. It is the clan as 
a whole that incurs obligations and asserts its 
rights as far as it is concerned with adjacent 
clans. Amid the pressing interests of the tribe, 
in the fierce struggle for existence, the individual 
has no chance whatever for especial consideration. 
The traces of this state of things confront us con- 
tinually as we study ancient history, where no 
fact is more conspicuous than the utterly ruthless 
way in which the individual is sacrificed to the 
state. The bearing of this state of things upon 
the history of persecution goes farther than any- 
thing else toward explaining that dreadful his- 
tory. In the early stages of society, when only 
small political aggregates have been formed, and 
when each little aggregate is perpetually strug- 
gling for its life with adjacent aggregates, the 
only kind of responsibility known to the tribe is 
corporate responsibility. The*tribe, as a whole, 
is held to be responsible corporately for the acts 
of each of its members, and hence it is neces- 
sary that the acts and beliefs of every one of the 
members should be subject to the approval of the 
tribe. If any one individual does something that 


240 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


is displeasing to the gods, the whole tribe is liable 
to be punished for the misdeed of this one per- 
son. This feeling was universal in ancient so- 
ciety, and, until we realize how intense it was, we 
shall be unable to understand some of the most 
remarkable scenes of ancient history. Take, for 
example, the frantic excitement which was stirred 
up in Athens, just before the expedition against 
Syracuse, by the mutilation of the rude way-side 
statues of Hermes. It is impossible for a modern 
man to understand this furious excitement unless 
_he duly considers the fact that, in the minds of 
the Athenians, the whole community — and not 
merely the individual criminals concerned — was 
responsible to the gods for this outrage. The 
whole community might be visited by the angry 
gods with famine and plague because of the mis- 
deeds of a few of its graceless members. 

This intense feeling of corporate responsibility 
pervades all the life of ancient society, and by 
keeping it in mind we shall understand many oce- 
currences which without this key we should find 
incomprehensible. When we bethink ourselves 
how far such deeply rooted feelings propagate 
themselves in history, we shall be inclined, I 
think, to find in this sense of corporate responsi- 
bility the weightiest cause of those deeds of per- 


The Causes of Persecution. 241 


secution which have made history hideous. To 
remove the heretic, lest God curse us all for his 
sake, —this no doubt has been the feeling that, 
more than any other, has justified the use of racks 
and thumb-screws. 

But with the progress of society toward wider 
and wider political aggregation, and toward greater 
and greater political stability, — along with the 
growing complexity of industrial processes, and 
along with the partial elimination of warfare, — 
there has slowly grown up a feeling that it is the 
individual, and not the tribe or the society, that 
is ultimately responsible for the individual’s opin- 
ions on matters of religion. Whatever we may 
think to-day about the results or the method of 
Mr. Robert Ingersoll, we certainly do not enter- 
tain the dread that because of Mr. Ingersoll’s 
crude opinions, or his intrusive manner of ex- 
pressing them, we are in danger of a famine, a 
plague, or a civil war next year. The aggrega- 
tion of small communities into great nations, and 
the growing complexity of the industrial proc- 
esses by which great nations are sustained, have 
entirely obliterated in our minds the recollection 
of the kinds of belief and the kinds of moral ob- 
ligation which characterized the primitive tribal 


communities. The phase of feeling characteris- 
16 


242 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


tic of the primitive community showed itself all 
through the Middle Ages. In the following pa- 
per I shall show how the beginnings of modern 
history were signalized by the revolt of Luther 
against the doctrine of corporate responsibility 
for opinion, and against the assumption of infalli- 
bility on the part of a special body of men. 


November, 1880. 


ES 
THE ORIGINS OF PROTESTANTISM. 


In the year 1609 one of the most atrocious 
crimes of which history preserves the record was 
perpetrated by the Spanish government. The 
Moriscoes, or Christianized descendants of the 
conquered Moors, had long been objects of sus- 
picion and hatred to the Spaniards, and especially 
to the Spanish clergy. During the sixteenth cen- 
tury they had been so cruelly treated that in 1568 
they had risen in rebellion among the mountains 
of Granada, and it had taken three years of ob- 
stinate fighting to bring them to terms. Their de- 
feat was so crushing that it was no longer possible 
to regard them as politically dangerous, but their 
orthodoxy was strongly suspected, inasmuch as 
the grandparents of the present generation had 
been converted to Christianity only by brute force. 
In 1602 the Archbishop of Valencia proposed that 
all the Moriscoes in the kingdom, with the excep- 
tion of children under seven years of age, should 
be forthwith driven into exile, that the nation 


244 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


might no longer be polluted by the slightest sus- 
picion of unbelief. The Archbishop of Toledo, 
primate of Spain, heartily agreed with his rever- 
end brother, save as far as concerned the little 
children, whom he thought should be included in 
the general banishment. To Bleda, the famous 
Dominican, even these measures seemed insuf- 
ficient, and he argued that all the Moriscoes in 
Spain — men, women, and children even to the 
new-born babe — should be ruthlessly murdered, 
‘‘ because it was impossible to tell which of them 
were Christians at heart, and it was enough to 
leave the matter to God, who knew his own, and 
who would reward in the next world those who 
were really Catholics.” The views of the Arch- 
bishop of Toledo finally prevailed, and in 1609, as 
Mr. Buckle puts it, “about one million of the 
most industrious inhabitants of Spain were hunted 
out like beasts, because the sincerity of their re- 
ligious opinions was doubtful.” Their deportation 
to Morocco was attended by characteristic bar- 
barities. The number of those massacred on the 
way seems to have exceeded the number of the 
victims of Saint Bartholomew; while of those 
who reached Africa, thousands were enslaved by 
Mohammedan Moors, or slain by robbers, or 
starved in the desert. 


The Origins of Protestantism. 245 


Now these Moriscoes, thus driven from the land 
by ecclesiastical bigotry, were the most skilful 
labourers Spain possessed. By their expulsion 
the manufacture of silk and paper was destroyed, 
the cultivation of sugar, rice, and cotton came to 
an end, the wool-trade stopped, and irrigation of 
the soil was discontinued. The disturbance of 
industry, and the consequent distress, were so 
great and so far-reaching that by the end of the 
seventeenth century the population of Madrid had 
decreased by one half, and that of Seville by three 
quarters; whole villages were deserted, large por- 
tions of the arable land went out of cultivation, 
and brigandage gained a foot-hold which it has 
ever since kept. In short, the economic ruin of 
Spain may be said to date from the expulsion of 
the Moriscoes: after nearly three hundred years 
the country has not yet recovered from the dis- 
astrous effects of that unparalleled crime and 
blunder. 

Yet this atrocious deed was done with the unan- 
imous approval of the Spanish‘people. Even the 
gentle-hearted and high-minded Cervantes ap- 
plauded it, while Davila characterized it as the 
most glorious event in all Spanish history. Nay, 
even in recent times, the eminent historian La- 
fuente, while recognizing the terrible economic 


246 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


results of the measure, maintains that it was 
nevertheless productive of immense benefit by se- 
curing the “religious unity” of the whole peo- 
ple. Here we have the true Spanish idea— or 
to speak more accurately, the true ecclesiastical 
idea, which, through an unfortunate combination 
of circumstances, has always dominated the Span- 
iards more completely than any other European 
people, but which has wrought mischief enough 
in other countries than Spain. To insure absolute 
‘religious unity,” to insure that from the Pyre- 
nees to Gibraltar all people should think exactly 
alike about questions which are confessedly un- 
fathomable by the human mind, — this seemed to 
the Spaniard an end of such supreme importance 
as to justify the destruction of two hundred thou- 
sand lives, and the overthrow of some of the chief 
industries of the kingdom. The annals of perse- 
cution in other countries serve but to point the 
same moral. Measured by the quantity of suf- 
fering it has entailed, as well as by the whole- 
sale disregard of moral rectitude it has involved, 
the history of the attempt to enforce “ religious 
unity ” is, no doubt, the blackest of all the black 
chapters in the awful career of mankind upon 
the earth. 

Yet, no doubt, the object for which all this 


The Origins of Protestantism. 247 


agony has been inflicted, and all this villainy per- 
petrated, is an utterly worthless object, when con- 
sidered with reference to the conditions of life in a 
civilized society. Not only is it not desirable that 
all the members of the community should hold 
the same opinions about religious matters, but it is 
far better that they should not all hold the same 
opinions. To the Frenchman’s sneer about the 
English, who have twenty religions and only one 
sauce, I should answer: By all means let us have 
twenty religions, even if we can have but one 
sauce. In comparison with the inscrutable reali- 
ties which religion postulates, our most elaborate 
attempts at theology are so feeble that it is not 
likely that any given set of opinions can represent 
more than the tiniest segment of the truth : 
‘*Our little systems have their day; 
They have their day and cease to be; 


They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.” 


In view of this weakness of reason, when con- 
fronted with the mighty problems of religion, it 
behooves each one of us to greet his neighbour’s 
opinions as, perhaps, containing a glimpse of truth 
which his own have lacked; not to scoff or frown 
at them as “different”? from his own. If “re- 


] 


ligious unity’ is ever to have any value, it can 


248 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


only be when it is reached as the outcome of the 
free untrammelled working of countless individual 
minds. Until it is reached in this way, “religious 
unity ” can mean nothing but ‘intellectual tor- 
pidity where religious questions are concerned; ”’ 
and, meanwhile, diversity of opinion is the best 
guarantee we can have that a healthy intellectual 
activity is going on. 

In the present paper, however, I propose to ex- 
amine the desire to enforce “ religious unity ” by 
the lght of the comparative method; let us see 
if there has not existed a state of society in which 
it may have been desirable that all the members 
of the community should think alike, on religious 
as well as on other subjects. 

Toward the close of my paper on ‘** The Causes 
of Persecution,” I called attention to the intense 
feeling of corporate responsibility which pervaded 
all the life of ancient society, and which, no doubt, 
goes farther than anything else toward explaining 
the genesis of persecution. To understand the 
origin and meaning of this notion of corporate re- 
sponsibility, we must carry our thoughts back to 
that primitive state of society when there are no 
political aggregates more extensive than the clan, 
or, at any rate, than the trzbe, formed by the co- 
alescence of kindred clans. In this lowest stage 


The Origins of Protestantism. 249 


of human progress, blood-relationship furnishes 
the only possible bond by which any concert of 
action among men can be secured. The ideas of 
right and duty, in so far as recognized at all by 
the dim intelligence of nascent humanity, are rec- 
ognized only within the limits of ascertainable 
blood-relationship. The comparative study of in- 
stitutions, among civilized people and among savy- 
ages, has established beyond doubt that this was 
the social condition of mankind at the beginning 
of its distinctively human career. I have myself 
shown that the very same codperating processes 
which originated the family, originated, also, those 
intellectual and moral differences by which hu- 
manity was first raised above the common level of 
apehood.!. Had the infancy of man been com- 
pleted within a period of three or four months, 
as is the case with other mammals, man would 
never have become human: there would have 
been no social aggregation, and there could not 
have been originated that long-enduring process 
of intellectual and moral development which was 
rendered possible only through social aggregation, 
and which went on so far during prehistoric times 
as to raise the human brain to nearly twice the 


1 See below, the paper on the ‘‘Meaning of Infancy.” See alse 
Darwinism and other Essays, pp. 42-47. 


250 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


dimensions of the brain of the highest ape. But 
the prolonging of the period of helpless infancy 
brought with it the genesis of the family, and 
thus inaugurated the first enduring principle of 
concerted action among human beings. 

By simple expansion, the family grew into the 
clan, and by expansion and coalescence small 
eroups of clans grew into the tribe ; and through- 
out these earliest stages of social organization the 
principle of concerted action remains the same 
that was first inaugurated by the genesis of the 
family. In the tribal stage the ideas of right and 
wrong are recognized, but their application is 
strictly determined by the necessities of the tribe. 
Right actions are those which help, or are sup- 
posed to help, the tribe in its perpetual struggle 
for existence with surrounding tribes; wrong ac- 
tions are those which hurt, or are supposed to 
hurt, the tribe’s chances of success. It is wrong 
to murder a fellow-tribesman, though human sac- 
rifices or female infanticide may be sanctioned 
from motives of general policy ; it 1s praiseworthy 
to murder a stranger, unless perhaps when he be- 
longs to some powerful tribe which it is impru- 
dent to offend. Above all things, the prime social 
and political necessity is social cohesion within 
the tribal limits, for unless such social cohesion 


The Origins of Protestantism. 251 


be maintained, the very existence of the tribe is 
likely to be extinguished in bloodshed. Such was 
doubtless in general the state of things which 
lasted for more than four thousand centuries, dur- 
ing which men lived and died upon the earth 
before they had acquired enough intelligence or 
enough political stability to leave anywhere a 
written record of their thoughts and deeds. Ten 
or twelve thousand generations of ruthless mili- 
tary discipline! ten or twelve thousand genera- 
tions of rigorous conformity to tribal require- 
ments, enforced under the perpetual threat of 
tribal extinction! Such was the terrible school- 
ing that was needed to fit men for aggregation 
into great and complex societies. Included in this 
military discipline, as part and parcel of it, was 
an incipient ecclesiastical discipline. Long before 
the dawn of history, ancestor-worship had begun. 
The ghosts of dead chieftains, in this primitive 
philosophy, survived as the tutelar deities of the 
tribe, ready now, as of old in their life-time, to 
punish misdemeanours, but clothed with a power 
all the more vast and awful, as its nature and 
limits were but vaguely and incoherently imag. 
ined. To offend in any particular against the 
ethical and ceremonial code established from time 
immemorial under the pressure of tribal necessi- 


252 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ties, would be to invite the vengeance of the tute: 
lar deities. The offender must be curtailed of his 
liberty, or maimed, or killed, or else by an easy 
inference the fellow-tribesmen would be liable to 
be held as participators in the offence, and dire 
calamity might thus befall the whole tribe. Tem- 
pest or famine or pestilence or defeat in battle 
might be expected by the tribe which should fail 
to punish an offence on the part of one of its 
members against the tutelar deities. ‘This feel- 
ing of corporate responsibility is always to be 
found among tribally organized barbarians; it 
existed among our own barbaric ancestors; ex- 
amples of it are numerous in Greeco-Roman antigq- 
uity ; and there can be no doubt that in primitive 
society the feeling was universally prevalent and 
ferociously intense withal, since no other human 
passion is so cruel as fear, and no other kind of 
fear is so cruel as the vague dread of the super- 
natural. And obviously there is no kind of con- 
duct which would so surely awaken the dread of 
supernatural vengeance as any neglect of the 
time-honoured rites due to the tutelar deities, or 
any expression of opinion, whether serious or flip- 
pant, which might be interpreted as derogatory 
to their awful dignity. 

The feeling of corporate responsibility, there 


The Origins of Protestantism. 253 


fore, grew out of the necessities of that primeval 
society in which the highest known order of polit- 
ical organization was the tribe, and in which 
neighbouring tribes were perpetually at war with 
each other. Under such circumstances, those 
tribes in which the feeling of corporate respon- 
sibility was most intense must in general have 
shown the highest capacity for coherent organiza- 
tion, and must have subjugated or extinguished 
those tribes in which the feeling was more feebly 
developed. The feeling must have grown by nat- 
ural selection until it became, as it were, part and 
parcel of the mental constitution of mankind. No 
wonder that we find the feeling so strongly devel- 
oped among the highly cultured Greeks and Ro- 
mans and Jews. <A feeling so deeply rooted in 
men’s ancestral experiences must needs survive 
long after the establishment of social conditions 
totally different from the conditions which im- 
planted it. If we wish for evidence that this 
sense of corporate responsibility has lain at the 
bottom of a great part of the. persecution which 
has made ecclesiastical history so abominable, we 
may find it, ready to hand, in the tale of wicked- 
ness with which I began the present discussion. 
One of the arguments for the banishment of 
the Moriscoes, upon which the Archbishop of 


254 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Valencia mainly relied, was the argument that 
the whole Spanish people were in the sight of 
Heaven responsible for the doubtful orthodoxy of 
these converts from Islam. ‘“ He declared that 
the Armada, which Philip II. sent against Eng- 
land in 1588, had been destroyed because God 
would not allow even that pious enterprise to suc- 
ceed while those who undertook it left heretics 
undisturbed at home. For the same reason, the 
late expedition to Algiers had failed; it being 
evidently the will of Heaven that nothing should 
prosper while Spain was inhabited by apostates.”’ } 
This argument, which produced a powerful effect 
upon both king and people, was conceived pre- 
cisely in the spirit of the primeval savage. And 
so when Mary Tudor, being afflicted with dropsy, 
supposed that she was about to give birth to a 
prince who should exclude from the succession 
the heretical Elizabeth, when the Ze Deum was 
sung in St. Paul’s, and vessels on the Thames 
fired salutes, and merry bells were set ringing in 
all the churches, and still the expected prince did 
not make his appearance; when, after the keen 
disappointment, the queen began to reason with 
herself, “she could not doubt that her hopes had 
been at one time well founded; but for some fault, 


1 Buckle, vol. ii. p. 47. 


The Origins of Protestantism. 255 


some error in herself, God had delayed the fulfil- 
ment of His promise. And what could that crime 
be? The accursed thing was still in the realm. 
She had been*raised up, like the judges in Israel, 
for the extermination of God’s enemies; and she 
had smitten but a few here and there, when, like 
the evil spirits, their name was legion.” ! As the 
practical result of these pious meditations, some 
fifty Protestants — one of my own ancestors 
among them — were forthwith burned at the 
stake. Obviously, Mary’s reasoning, like that of 
the Spanish archbishop, had no validity or sig- 
nificance whatever, except as it appealed to that 
terrible sense of corporate responsibility which 
they had inherited as a tradition from prehistoric 
times. 

Now, although the feeling of corporate respon- 
sibility for opinions was still so powerful as re- 
cently as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
although plentiful traces of it may still be found 
at the present day, nevertheless the state of things | 
by which the feeling was logically justified has 
long since passed away. And it has passed away, 
no doubt, never to return. It began to pass away 
so soon as men began to become organized into 
great nations, covering a vast extent of territory, 


i Froude, History of England, vi. 330. 


256 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and secured by their concentrated military strength 
against the gravest dangers of barbaric attack. 
In European history, the first conspicuous ap- 
proach to this new state of things Was made by 
the tremendous conquests of Rome. For a period 
of five centuries after the overthrow of Carthage 
and Macedonia, the Roman government held to- 
gether a greater number of men of different races, 
tongues, and faiths than had ever before been so 
long held together since the world began; and, 
throughout the vast territory over which it held 
sway, it succeeded in maintaining a state of peace 
which, imperfect and fitful as it seems from the 
point of view which we moderns have reached, 
still presented a striking contrast to the perpetual 
and universal warfare of primitive peoples. Under 
this condition of things, the old ideas and feelings 
began to be modified in many ways. ‘The pas- 
sage from ancient to modern ideas of social obli- 
gation can be largely traced in the wonderfully 
suggestive history of the Roman jurisprudence. 
In the early ages of the Republic we find the legal 
existence of the individual well-nigh merged in 
that of his family, and we find his duties and ob- 
ligations defined entirely by the status in which 
he is born. But, by the time of the great codifi- 
cation which wert on under the Empire we find 


The Origins of Protestantism. 257 


the legal existence of the individual distinctly 
acknowledged, and his duties and obligations 
largely determined by contract, as is the case in 
modern society. Manifestly, the relations sus- 
tained by the individual toward so great a whole 
as the Empire could not be like the relations sus- 
tained by the individual toward so small a whole 
as the tribe. Through the sheer breaking up of 
tribal ideas of obligation which the Empire every- 
where effected, the ideas of individual obligation 
characteristic of modern society began to emerge 
' into the foreground. The most fundamental and 
far-reaching effect of Roman conquest was the de- 
composition of primitive ideas, political and social, 
legal and religious. The world of separate tribes 
and separate cities, each with its peculiar laws, 
and each with its local deities and rites, came to 
an end, and was replaced by an organized Euro- 
pean world, with its Roman law, based on ethical 
principles acknowledged by vast masses of men, 
and with its Christian religion, based on the as- 
" sertion of the universal brotherhood of men and 
the universal fatherhood of God. 

As in the Roman law, so also in Christianity, 
the innumerable new relations into which men 
were thrown resulted in a great deal of abstrac- 


tion and generalization concerning the scope of 
¥ 


258 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


men’s rights and duties. In the one case as in 
the other, the liberation of the individual from 
the old tribal bonds was effected by the process 
which brought him into immediate relations with 
a state possessing a dominion that was practically 
universal, and with Deity regarded as eternally 
ruling the whole created world. The individual 
salvation of each human being, as dependent 
upon his spiritual attitude toward his heavenly 
Father, is an idea distinctly present in Christian- 
ity as first enunciated, and in the prominence 
assumed by this grand idea the old notion of 
tribal allegiance to a tutelar deity fades entirely 
out of sight. The idea that salvation is to be 
attained through conformity to a certain pre- 
scribed set of opinions or of ritual observances, 
or through obedience to a certain ordained priest- 
hood, finds no support whatever in the teachings 
of Jesus as reported in the Gospels. So far from 
lending support to this primitive idea of religious 
obligation, Gospel Christianity is in itself a most 
emphatic protest against it; and it was through 
this wholesale discarding of primitive ideas that 
Christianity secured from the outset an element 
of permanence such as no other scheme of re- 
ligion has ever possessed. Miraculous legend, 
impressive ceremonial, priestly devotion, doctrines 


The Origins of Protestantism. 259 


awful or consoling, — these things have at times 
been potent influences in maintaining the sway 
of Christianity over the human mind; but the 
potency of such influences as these is limited 
in extent and in duration, — it is dependent 
upon transient states of society and transient 
phases of opinion. The permanent element in 
the feature whereby it may still 





Christianity 
claim the allegiance of modern thinkers who re- 
ject the supernatural theology and the symbolic 
ritual — is the fact of its placing the conditions 
of salvation, not in doctrine or in ceremonial, 
but in right conduct as flowing from the impulse 
toward a higher life in which religion most es- 
sentially consists. Not they that say unto me, 
** Lord, Lord,” but they that do the will of our 
Father in heaven, — such was the first authorita- 
tive definition of the aspect of human life with 
which Christianity primarily concerns itself. 
Thus, Christianity in its earliest form may be 
regarded as a kind of Protestantism, in which old 
heathen ideas of conformity to tribal require- 
ments as to doctrine and ritual were utterly dis- 
carded, and in which religion was presented as 
something which concerns the individual alone in 
the presence of the infinite God. * But so lofty a 
conception as this could not be realized so long as 


260 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Christianity had to make its way as a militant 
force among peoples who were still largely under 
the influence of primeval ideas of corporate re- 
sponsibility for opinion. Already, in their strug- 
gle with the pagan society of the Empire, the 
preachers of the new ideas found it necessary to 
become organized as a “church militant,” and to 
have certain recognized dogmas, or — to use the 
old and expressive term — symbols, as a sort of 
banner around which to rally their adherents. 
This militant character of the early church ex- 
plains the persistency with which all gnostic or 
rationalizing interpretations of sacred mysteries 
were condemned and set aside; they were liable 
to the charge of offering some possible ground of 
compromise with pagan philosophic ideas. The 
most rigid and uncompromising symbol — the 
one which involved the most complete self-sur- 
render to the interests of the common struggle — 
was the one which worked the best; and hence 
there lay a certain sort of rude practical logic 
beneath the much-derided and often misquoted 
phrase of Tertullian, Credo quia impossibile.1 ‘To 
rationalize the new dogma of the Trinity was in 
itself to make a quasi-concession to the Neo- 


1 This point is well brought out in the Rev. J. H. Allen’s excellent 
little book, Christian History in its Three Great Periods. 


The Origins of Protestantism. 261 


Platonists; and herein was reason enough why 
the Athanasian interpretation should supplant 
the Arian. An organized priesthood was neces- 
sary, too, in order to preserve the liberty of the 
Church at a time when the political structure of 
society was such that there was no other avail- 
able check upon the autocratic power of the em- 
perors. In its attitude as a “church militant,” 
therefore, Christianity was compelled to enforce 
conformity to dogma, and obedience to priestly 
authority ; and in doing these things, the feeling, 
still rife among men, to which it appealed, was 
the old feeling of corporate responsibility for 
opinion. 

The old feeling, thus strongly appealed to at a 
time when its basis in the conditions of primeval 
society had been destroyed, received still stronger 
reinforcement when the Church took upon itself 
the tremendous task — to which the political 
forces of the Empire were no longer competent — 
of civilizing the barbaric world. From the time 
of Ulfilas to the time of Anschar there were five 
centuries of militancy, during which all the 
power of the spiritual as well as of the secular 
arm was taxed to the utmost in the work of 
making the Teutonic barbarians adopt the re- 
sults of Graeco-Roman civilization. In warfare of 


262 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


this sort, the Church could do nothing less than 
appeal to the only available religious conceptions 
with which the past experience of its converts 
had made them familiar. As in the political 
system of these ages of transition between an- 
cient and modern civilization we observe a partial 
and temporary retrogression toward a pre-Roman 
as exemplified in some 





tribal and local polity, 
of the aspects of feudalism, — so too in religious 
conceptions we may observe a partial and tem- 
porary renascence of primitive pagan ideas. To 
say that the Church adopted many pagan sym- 
bols is only to say that the great men who shaped 
its missionary policy talked to their pagan con- 
verts in the language which they were best capa- 
ble of understanding. ‘The Church thus adopted 
the doctrine of corporate responsibility for opin- 
ion, very much as it adopted Yule-tide and 
Easter feasts, and the worship, under a scriptural 
name, of the Berecynthian Mother. The outcome 
of all this was that in the process of Christianiz- 
ing the pagan world Christianity itself became 
more or less deeply paganized. Hence those ter- 
rible persecutions, of Albigensian and other here- 
tics, which marked the epoch of the Church’s 
greatest supremacy, and which no one thought of 
justifying from the teachings of Jesus, but only 


a 


The Origins of Protestantism. 263 


from Old Testament texts expressing the crude 
primitive notions of the Jews in their semi-bar- 
barous period. 

But now, after the Teutonic and Slavic bar- 
barians had become pretty nearly all converted ; 
after Europe had come to feel itself reasonably 
secure against being overrun by Saracens or 
Mongols ; after the principal European kingdoms 
had arrived at something like political stability ; 
after the Crusades had shaken up men’s ideas by 
bringing the civilizations of the East and West in 
contact with each other; and after the partly 
paganized Church had begun to put forth such 
pretensions as, if successful, would have con- 
verted Europe into a caliphate, and would thus 
have inflicted upon it the doom of stagnation like 
that which has overtaken the Mohammedan 
world; after this state of things had been reached, 
in the course of the thirteenth century, then 
symptoms of dissent began to manifest them- 
selves, — vague murmurs, which heralded the 
great Protestant storm that was gathering. It 
was in the thirteenth century that the Church 
thought it necessary to desecrate the noble en- 
thusiasm which had inspired the Crusades, by 
employing it to crush out heresy with fire and 
sword in the southern parts of France, — thus 


264 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


beginning that detestable scheme of robbing the 
French nation of its nimblest minds and strongest 
characters, which was continued in scenes like 
the St. Bartholomew, and was consummated in 
the infamous dragonnades of 1685. It was in 
the thirteenth century, too, that the Spanish 
mind hit upon that ingenious device of the In- 
quisition, whereby all speculative originality was 
to be effectually extinguished in so-called “ acts- 
of-faith,” to the proper performance of which an 
abundant supply of fire-wood was the principal 
requisite. These new developments of the per- 
secuting spirit show how formidable the spirit of 
dissent was then becoming. This spirit of dis- 
sent, both at that time and in later days, was 
fond of assuming the form of a protest against 
the pagan corruptions of the Church, and in be- 
half of a return to the simplicity of organization, 
of doctrine, and of ritual, and to the purity of 
life, which characterized the Christianity of the 
apostolic age. ‘This common element is discern- 
ible alike in the Bogomilians of the East, and in 
the Albigensians, Hussites, and Lollards of the 
West; and in the Puritanism of later times it is 
conspicuous. The majestic revolt of Luther — 
an event which did more for true religion than 
anything which had happened in the world since 


The Origins of Protestantism. 265 


the days of Jesus and Paul — can in nowise 
be likened to the innumerable schisms which 
have divided the Church on special points of doc- 
trine, organization, and ritual. Its scope and im- 
portance were far greater than any of these, im- 
portant as many of these have been. It took 
issue with the fundamental assumption upon 
which the Church had come, by slow degrees, to 
take its stand — the assumption of corporate re- 
sponsibility for opinion and ceremonial. Its de- 
nial, though not explicit in every instance, was 
nevertheless couched in such wise as to cover im- 
plicitly the whole ground upon which the Church 
assumed the right to interfere with individual 
freedom. ‘The protest of Luther, when its logical 
implications are unfolded, involves the assertion 
* of the right of each individual to decide for him- 
self what theological doctrines he can or can not 
accept, what ecclesiastical observances he shall 
or shall not adopt, and generally in what way he 
is to worship God. It has, indeed, required three 
centuries of discussion, since Luther’s time, to un- 
fold all the logical implications of Protestantism. 
The theory of life which it contained was too 
lofty to be thoroughly and consistently under- 
stood, even by those who first conceived it dis- 
tinetly enough to be willing to fight for it; and 


266 Excursions of an Evolutionist. ; 


most Protestant churches have practically re- 
tained fragments here and there of the old Ro- 
manist and quasi-pagan assumption of corporate 
responsibility. The struggle of the Protestant 
world, however, has, in the main, been a struggle 
in behalf of the principle of individual respon- 
sibility, and in general the most energetic Prot 
estants have been found on the side of absolute 
freedom in politics, which always means absolute 
freedom in religion sooner or later. It was the 
intensely Protestant Puritans who overthrew the 
last attempts at tyranny on the part of English 
kings, both in England and in America. 

It would not be correct, therefore, to describe 
Protestantism — any more than it would be cor- 
rect to describe Christianity —as a system of 
doctrines. To point to any particular doctrines | 
held in common by all Protestants would be as 
difficult as to point to any particular doctrines 
held in common by all Christians. Viewed in 
the light of its own historic genesis, Protest- 
antism may be described as that kind of religious 
polity which is based upon the conception of in- 
dividual responsibility for opinion. The antago- 
nist conception —of corporate responsibility tor 
opinion —had its origin and justification in the 
military necessities of primeval society, when 


The Origins of Protestantism. 267 


there were no political aggregates larger than the 
tribe. With the aggregation of men into great, 
complex, and stable political aggregates, — in 
other words, with the passing away of the cir- 
cumstances by which the notion of corporate re- 
sponsibility was historically justified, —the notion 
began to lose its hold upon men’s minds. As 
men in the ordinary affairs of life began to pro- 
ceed upon the notion of individual responsibility, 
they began to apply the same principle to relig- 
ious matters; and great religious teachers began 
to protest against the various implications of the 
primeval notion. Such a protest was implicitly 
made by the Founder of Christianity, who in- 
sisted upon the importance of conduct and the 
worthlessness of ceremonial and formula; and 
fifteen centuries later, after Europe had emerged 
from a life-and-death struggle with barbarism, in 
which primitive notions had been partially re- 
vived and the Church had become partially pa- 
ganized, a similar protest, in the name of Christ, 
was explicitly made by Martin Luther. 


January, 1881. 


2.6 
THE TRUE LESSON OF PROTESTANTISM.1 


SINCE the day when Martin Luther posted his 
audacious heresies on the church-door at Witten- 
berg, a great change has come over men’s minds, 
the full significance cf which is even yet but 
rarely comprehended. To inquire into the na- 
ture of this change, and into what we may per- 
haps call its ultimate tendency, 1s well worth 
our while, whether as students of history or as 
students of philosophy. In outward aspect, the 
results of Protestantism have come to be very 
different to-day from what they were at first. 
The immediate consequence of Luther’s successful 
revolt was the formation of a great number of lit- 
tle churches, each with its creed as clean-cut and 
as thoroughly dried as the creed of the great 
church from which they had separated, each mak- 
ing practically the same assumption of absolute 
infallibility, each laying down an intellectual as- 


1 An address delivered before a Convention of Unitarian clergy- 
men at Princeton, Mass., October 4, 1881. 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 269 


sent to sundry transcendental dogmas as an ex- 
clusive condition of salvation. ‘This formation of 
new sects has gone on down to the present time, 
and there is no reason why it should not continue 
in future; but the period when educated men, 
of great and original powers, could take part in 
work of this sort has gone by forever. The fore- 
most men are no longer heresiarchs; they are 
free-thinkers, each on his own account; and the 
formation of new sects is something which in the 
future is likely to be more and more confined to 
ignorant or half-educated classes of people. At 
the present day it is not the formation of new 
sects, but the decomposition of the old ones, that 
is the conspicuous phenomenon inviting our atten- 
tion. The latter half of the nineteenth century 
will be known to the future historian as espe- 
cially the era of the decomposition of orthodoxies. 
People, as a rule, do not now pass over from one 
church into another, but they remain in their 
own churches while modifying their theological 
opinions, and in this way the orthodoxy of every 
church is gradually but surely losing its con- 
sistency. Nor is it only the laymen of whom 
this can be said; for the clergy every now and 
then set the example. An eminent Congregation- 
alist minister in Connecticut, some few years 


270 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


since, was asked why he did not go over to the 
Unitarians, inasmuch as he not only kept Strauss 
and Renan in his library, but even loaned them 
to young men, and publicly eulogized Herbert 
Spencer, and went so far one day as to take part 
in the dedication of a Jewish synagogue. The 
quaint and shrewd reply was: ‘I don’t see why 
the Unitarians should monopolize all the free- 
thinking; I prefer to carry my candle where it 
is darkest!”’ It is only four or five years since a 
learned English bishop completed his voluminous 
commentary on the Pentateuch, in which the 
sacred text is handled with as much freedom as 
Mr. Paley shows in dealing with the Homeric 
poems, or Mr. Grote in expounding the dialogues 
of Plato. And ‘the history of this, as of other 
less conspicuous acts of heresy, has been held to 
show that practically an Anglican divine may 
preach whatever doctrine he likes — provided, 
doubtless, that he avoid certain obnoxious catch- 
words. Among Unitarians this doctrinal latitude 
is too well known to require any illustration. 
Yet it is well not to forget that, forty years ago, 
Theodore Parker was virtually driven out of the 
Unitarian Church for saying the same sort of 
things which may be heard to-day from half the 
Unitarian pulpits in New England. 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 271 


In view of all this, it is not strange if we are 
sometimes led to ask, What is to be the final out- 
come of this decomposition of orthodoxies? The 
total destruction of religious creeds was long ago 
predicted by Catholic controversialists as an in- 
evitable result of the exercise of that right of 
private judgment which is the fundamental prin- 
ciple of Protestantism ; and now it begins to look 
as if the Catholic prediction were likely to be ful- 
filled, although Protestant churches have warmly 
resented the imputation, and have too often taken 
pains to show that in strait and uncompromising 
bigotry they could vie with their great antago- 
nist. While Catholics, on the one hand, have 
foretold this result by way of warning and op- 
probrium, on the other hand it has been no less 
confidently predicted by atheists, materialists, 
and positivists by way of encouragement and ap- 
proval. To Comte the chaos of opinion which 
prevails in modern society afforded proof that the 
time was ripe for discarding theology and meta- 
physics altogether, and for confining the opera- 
tions of the human mind hereafter to the simple 
content of observed facts. To Dr. Biichner and 
his friends it presages the speedy advent of that 
glorious millennium when all men shall felicitate 
themselves upon the prospect of dying like the 


272 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


beasts of the field. On the one side and on the 
other we hear it maintained, with equal emphasis, 
that any system of Protestantism —any system 
which seeks to combine absolute freedom of spec- 
ulation with an essentially religious attitude of 
mind — is logically absurd, and is destined to be 
superseded. The only question is as to what al- 
ternative is to survive the inevitable fate of all 
such misguided attempts; and here Dr, Biichner 
and the Pope will be found to disagree. While 
on the one hand it is held that the course of 
modern philosophic thought is so distinctly to- 
ward materialism that every one who is not a 
materialist is behind the age, on the other hand it 
is prophesied that, out of sheer weariness of the 
scepticism that is the perpetual outcome of free 
inquiry, there will eventually be brought about a 
renaissance of the ages of faith. I do not know 
that it can be said precisely how far these expec- 
tations go. Probably it is not expected that cru- 
sades or pilgrimages to Compostella will again 
become fashionable in the complex industrial 
society of the future; perhaps it is not ex- 
pected that leaders of scientific thought will ac- 
cept the miracle of St. Januarius, for the Catholic 
Church has oftentimes known how to be judi- 
ciously lax about such matters; but there is no 


\ 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 2738 


doubt a vague expectation that, in spite of the in- 
dependence of thought which scientific studies 
are fostering, a line will somehow be drawn be- 
yond which men shall agree to submit their judg- 
ment to that of the Church. It is not Catholics 
only who make this tacit assumption : it is made, 
in one form or another, by every one who argues 
that his own particular orthodoxy is destined to 
survive the shocks of scientific scepticism; and it 
underlies the remark which we sometimes hear, 
that all would be well if men of science would 
only keep their place and not encroach upon the 
province of the theologian. The alternative, then, 
is, when stated as broadly as possible, Will the 
present decomposition of beliefs be succeeded by 
a period of reconstruction in which the teachings 
of some church shall be accepted as authoritative 
concerning questions of a purely religious nature, 
or will the decomposition go on until the last ves- 
tige of recognition of religious questions shall have 
vanished, and all educated men shail have become 
atheistic materialists? It is my object on the 
present occasion to show that no such alternative 
really confronts us; that the very propounding 
of such a question involves grave philosophical 
and historical errors; that neither materialism on 


the one hand, nor any species of ecclesiastical 
18 


274 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


orthodoxy on the other hand, is likely to become 
prevalent in the future; and that the mainte- 
nance of an essentially religious attitude of mind 
is compatible with absolute freedom of specula- 
tion on all subjects, whether scientific or meta- 
physical. 

In my apprehension it is a very serious mistake, 
though a very common one, to suppose that the 
tendency of modern philosophic thought is toward 
materialism. On this subject there is a great con- 
fusion of ideas, which is aggravated by a general 
uncertainty as to just what materialism really is. 
The word ‘ materialism” has been so commonly 
used in a vituperative rather than a descriptive 
sense, that it has become somewhat damaged 
for philosophical purposes. Whenever Auguste 
Comte had to deal with some opinion which he 
did not like, — it made little or no difference what 
it was about, — he used to get rid of it without 
delay by calling it “metaphysical.” And in like 
manner the word “ materialism” has come to be 
with some orthodox people a general term of 
abuse for anything which they do not happen to 
like. I was once called (in print) a materialist, 
for saying that there are no trustworthy dates in 
Greek history prior to the first Olympiad! Some 
wiseacre — whose lectures I have lately seen re- 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 275 


ported in the newspapers — solemnly states that 
he shall call all persons materialists who do not 
believe in the freedom of the will; which, of 
course, would include Jonathan Edwards. Then, 
besides this silly use of language, the word has 
undergone some legitimate historical changes of 
meaning. The great Dr. Priestley, whose theism 
was quite unimpeachable, avowed himself a ma- 
terialist, because he did not regard it as beyond 
the power of an omnipotent Creator to endow 
matter with the capacity for feeling and think- 
ing. It seems to me that this was a mental atti- 
tude much more devout, if not more philosoph- 
ical, than that of those modern theologians who 
vie with the ancient Gnostics in heaping abuse 
upon poor blind, brute, senseless, inert ‘* matter.” 
But Priestley was by no means a materialist in 
the sense in which that word is correctly used in 
philosophic discussion to-day. It is not merely 
in the vocabulary of theological abuse that the 
terms materialism and atheism are closely asso- 
ciated; the opinions which they connote are really 
linked together in many ways. In former times 
it was customary to stigmatize the colossal gener- 
alizations of astronomers and geologists as * athe- 
istical,” because they substituted divine action 
through natural law for divine action through 


276 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


supernatural fiat, which had hitherto been com- 
monly regarded as the only conceivable kind of 
divine action. Nowadays as cultivated minds are 
beginning to surmount this old difficulty, the 
bugbear springs up in a new quarter. Now that 
we have begun to study psychology after a sci- 
entific method, and to derive valuable assistance 
from the investigation of nerve-cells and nerve- 
fibres, and now that we have begun to apply to 
these studies the profoundest generalizations of 
physics and chemistry concerning the bebaviour 
of molecules of matter, we hear so much talk 
about undulations and discharges and nervous 
connections that many worthy people seem to be 
afraid of seeing it proved that we have really no 
psychical life at all. They are afraid that the 
human soul will by and by be wholly resolved 
into an affair of molecules and undulations and 
unstable equilibria, and so forth ; and accordingly 
all speculations even remotely savouring of phys- 
iological psychology, or of the correlation of vital 
with inorganic motions, are forthwith stigmatized 
as “ materialistic.” Even the Darwinian theory 
of the origin of species is said to be materialistic 
by implication, inasmuch as it is supposed at some 
point to derive the human soul from the psychi. 
cal part of a brute animal, and at some other 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 277 


point to derive the psychical part of the brute an- 
imal from something that is not psychical. The 
common reproach aimed at all such speculations 
is that in one way or another, either directly or 
by implication, they all tend toward the interpre- 
tation of psychical life as a temporary or evanes- 
cent condition of matter, and thus in reality ban- 
ish soul from the universe. The association in 
the popular mind between materialism and athe- 
ism is here obvious enough, and is easily justified. 
Philosophical materialism holds that matter and 
the motions of matter make up the sum total of 
existence, and that what we know as psychical 
phenomena in man and other animals are to be 
interpreted in an ultimate analysis as simply the 
peculiar aspect which is assumed by certain enor- 
mously complicated motions of matter. This is, 
I believe, a strictly correct description of mate- 
rialism, as it was held in the eighteenth century 
by La Mettrie, and as it is held by Biichner to- 
day. Whoever holds such yiews as these con- 
cerning the relations of matter and spirit may be 
properly called a materialist, and no doubt there 
are many educated people who hold such views, 
but that the general tendency of modern philo- 
sophic thought is toward the adoption of material- 
48m as thus defined, I emphatically deny. On the 


278 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


contrary, it seems to me that the course of modern 
philosophy is distinctly in the opposite direction, 
and that materialism is hopelessly behind the age, 
so that it argues a much more superficial mind 
and a much more imperfect education to agree 
with Buchner to-day than to have agreed with La 
Mettrie a hundred years ago. 

Bear in mind that, before a philosopher can be 
correctly charged with materialism, it is absolutely 
necessary that he should hold that psychical phe- 
nomena — such as love and hate, or the sensation 
of redness, or the idea of virtue — are interpret- 
able in terms of matter and motion. Nothing 
short of this will do. It is not enough that he 
should hold that, along with every emotion or 
sensation or idea, there goes on a change in 
nerve-tissue which is probably resolvable into 
some form of undulatory motion; for this is but 
an amplification of what we all begin by admit- 
ting when we admit that during the present life 
there is no consciousness except where there is 
nerve-tissue. If it is materialism to say that for 
every association of ideas there is established a 
system of paths for discharges between two or 
more groups of nerve-cells, it is equally material- 
ism to say that a pint of Scotch whiskey will 
make a man drunk. The former statement enters 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 279 


very much more into detail than the latter, but 
there is no other essential difference between 
them. I do not wonder, however, that people’s 
minds are often vague and confused on these 
points, for our every-day talk is full of materi- 
alistic implications. We say, for example, that 
grief makes us weep, and the statement is true 
enough for ordinary purposes ; but, in reality, it is 
not the grief that acts upon the tear-glands. The 
grief is something absolutely immaterial, some- 
thing absolutely outside the circuit of physical 
causation. How do we know this? How do we 
reach such a conclusion? We reach it by apply- 
ing to the subject the conception of the correla- 
tion of forces, and the conception of the atomic 
constitution of matter, — twin conceptions which 
lie at the bottom of all our modern scientific 
reasoning. The material world is all made up of 
systems of atoms that are perpetually moving in 
relation to one another. In an ultimate analysis, 
every material object is such a system of moving 
atoms. Every living organism is a system of 
systems of such atoms, in myriad-fold orders of 
composition, and with movements definitely co- 
ordinated in myriad-fold degrees of complexity. 
Now, all the motion that goes into any organism, 
latent in the air which it breathes and the food 


280 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


which it assimilates, must come out again as mo- 
tion, and what comes out must be the exact 
equivalent of what goes in. This is what the 
doctrine of the correlation of forces means when 
applied to the living organism and to the nervous 
system. It means, too, that if we were able to 
trace in detail the career of any given quantity 
of atomic motion between the times of its enter- 
ing and its leaving the organism, we should find 
through all its innumerable transformations an 
exact equivalence preserved. But this means that 
the motion must always be a motion of material 
particles, — something that can be quantitatively 
measured. Once introduce into the circuit some- 
thing that does not admit of material measure- 
ment, such as a sensation of colour, or an emo- 
tion of grief, and the whole theory falls to the 
ground at once. 

When a given quantity of atomic motion in the 
gray surface of the brain is used up, its equiva- 
lent must appear in the form of some other 
atomic motion, and cannot have been a subject- 
ive feeling; otherwise it is idle to talk about 
any correlation and equivalence of forces in the 
case. ‘There can be no relation of equivalence 
between a sorrowful feeling and a motion of 
matter that can be expressed in terms of foot- 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 281 


pounds. You might as well talk about a crimson 
taste or an acid sound. When you weep, there- 
fore, it is not grief, but the cerebrum, that acts 
upon the tear-glands. You say that the grief 
causes the tears, because you are conscious of the 
relation of sequence between the subjective emo- 
tion and the objective flow of tears, while you 
are totally unconscious of the molecular move- 
ments going on in the brain. But, in reality, 
the subjective emotion is something purely im- 
material, or, if you choose to say so, spiritual, 
and its relation to what goes on in the brain is 
merely a relation of concomitance. 

I have illustrated this point at disproportionate 
leneth, because it is both important and difficult. 
Until this point is perfectly clear in one’s mind, 
any discussion of the alleged materialistic ten- 
dencies of modern philosophy is simply a waste 
of words. It is very clear that modern philos- 
ophy does show a decided tendency toward in- 
vestigating what goes on in the nervous system 
when we think and feel; and it is also clear 
that modern philosophy considers itself bound to 
study the nervous system as a material aggregate, 
with an atomic constitution, and subject to the 
same physical laws with other matter. I hope I 
have now made it equally clear that these ten- 


282 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


dencies of modern philosophy are just the reverse 
of materialistic. So far from maintaining, as 
materialism does, that psychical phenomena are 
interpretable in terms of matter and motion, 
this modern philosophy maintains that such phe- 
nomena are absolutely immaterial, — that they 
stand, as I said before, quite outside the circuit 
of physical causation. If the world were peopled 
with automata, if men had gone on from the be- 
ginning like puppets, eating, and drinking, and 
marrying, working and fighting, exactly as they 
have done, producing human history in all its de- 
tails exactly as 1t has been produced, only with- 
out any consciousness, without any sentient life 
whatever, then materialism perhaps would afford 
a satisfactory explanation of the world. But the 
moment the first trace of conscious intelligence is 
introduced, we have a set of phenomena which 
materialism can in no wise account for. The 
latest and ripest philosophic speculation, there- 
fore, leaves the gulf between mind and matter 
quite as wide and impassable as it appeared in 
the time of Descartes. 

But while materialism is thus more than ever 
discredited by the dominant philosophy of our 
time, and while it will no doubt continue to be 
more and more discredited with each future ad- 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 288 


vance in philosophic speculation, I see no reason 
why there should not always be a certain amount 
of materialism current in the world. Very likely 
there will always be people who are colour-blind, 
and people without an ear for music. So, doubt- 
less, there will always be a class of excellent peo- 
plé with a fair capacity for understanding scien- 
tific generalizations, but without any head for 
philosophy ; and this class will produce the Biich- 
ners and La Mettries of the future, as it has 
produced them in the past and present. Thus, 
one part of my question is disposed of. The phi- 
losophy of the future will not be materialistic, 
and there is nothing in the dominant philosophy 
of to-day to indicate that religious problems will 
not continue to be made the subjects of specula- 
tion. I recollect once asking Mr. Spencer’s opin- 
ion on some question of pure ontology. He re- 
plied that he had no opinion; not because his 
mind was necessarily hostile to entertaining such 
questions, but simply because he was so entirely 
occupied in working out the theory of evolution, 
in its innumerable applications to the world of 
phenomena, that he had not time and strength 
left to expend on problems that are confessedly 
insoluble. ‘This was the answer of a true man of 
science ; and it is worth repeating for the benefit 


284 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


of those silly people who think it is not enough 
that Mr. Spencer should have made greater ad- 
ditions to the sum of human knowledge than 
have ever been made by any other man since the 
beginning of the world, and complain of him be- 
cause he has not given us a complete and final 
_system of theology into the bargain. But Mr, 
Spencer’s answer further illustrates very well the 
philosophic attitude of the present age. The 
present age is occupied, above all things, in in- 
vestigating the intimate constitution of the ma- 
terial universe, and tracing therefrom its past 
history and its future career. The conception of 
evolution is everywhere being substituted for that 
of special creation ; and this involves the most ex- 
tensive and thorough change that has ever taken 
place in men’s thoughts about the world they live 
in. For the present, this business absorbs all the 
most active and original minds, so that no time 
is left for metaphysical speculations. We are 
becoming wrapt in the study of origins, as the 
men of the thirteenth century were wrapt in the 
study of particulars and universals.. But there is 
no likelihood that this will always be so. By and 
by all educated people will be evolutionists, and 
then it will be seen, more clearly than it is now, 
that while the doctrine of evolution has enor. 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 285 


mously increased our knowledge of the phenome- 
nal universe, it really leaves all ultimate questions 
as much open for discussion as they ever were. It 
is Mr. Spencer himself who has said that every 
new physical problem leads at once to a meta- 
physical problem that we can neither solve nor 
elude. Solve it doubtless we cannot, elude it we 
also cannot, and so discuss it we will. Such, I 
presume, will be the course which philosophy will 
take where religious questions are concerned. 
And now we are brought to the other part of 
my question. Will the time ever come again 
when men will be absorbed in questions of a 
transcendental or ontological character, as Aqui- 
nas and other great medizeval thinkers were ab- 
sorbed? It seems to me quite possible that the 
interest in such matters may again become as in- 
tense, though not so exclusive, as it was in the 
Middle Ages. But if it be asked whether there 
can ever again be a theological renaissance of 
such a character that men shall agree to sur- 
render their right of private judgment on purely 
religious questions, and accept the teachings of 
any church, the reply must be that any renais- 
sance of this sort is utterly impossible. The 
further question, whether unity of belief can ever 
be secured in any other way, is to be met by the 


286 Excursions of an Kvolutionist. 


assertion that unity of belief is no longer either 
possible or desirable. Such a statement as this is 
very startling, and more or less puzzling, to many 
people, as I have often had occasion to observe ; 
and when the truth of it has come to be gener- 
ally and thoroughly realized, it will probably be 
the greatest step in religious progress that has 
ever been accomplished. Once, we know, unity 
of belief was held to be of such supreme impor- 
tance that the faintest whisper of dissent must 
be punished with torture and death. I have else- 
where sought to account, on historical grounds, 
for the existence of this persecuting spirit, as 
well as for its decline in modern times. In a 
paper on ** The Causes of Persecution,” I showed 
how ancient society was pervaded by an intense 
feeling of corporate responsibility, — a feeling 
that the whole community was liable to be pun- 
ished by the gods for the misdeeds of any one of 
its individual members. In early times this feel- 
ing of corporate responsibility, taken in connec- 
tion with the barbaric theories of the universe 
then current, was the mainstay and support of 
priesthoods. And it was to the persistence of this 
feeling down through the Middle Ages that the 
horrors of religious persecution were chiefly due. 
Yn a second paper, on “ The Origins of Protest- 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 287 


-antism,”’ I showed that the feeling of corporate 
responsibility had its legitimate origin in the 
military necessities of primitive societies. In 
ages when there were no political aggregations 
of men larger than tribes, and when the relations 
between tribes were chiefly those of chronic war- 
fare, a rude and savage discipline, in which the 
legal existence of the individual was virtually 
submerged in the interests of the tribe, was ab- 
solutely necessary. The feeling that the whole 
tribe was liable to be visited with defeat or fam- 
ine or pestilence, on account of sacrilege com- 
mitted by one of its members, was part and 
parcel of such a state of society. This feeling 
of corporate responsibility must have grown in 
strength through many ages by natural selection, 
as those tribes in which it was most effectively 
developed must in general have shown the high- 
est capacity for social organization, and must have 
exterminated or enslaved their neighbours. Hav- 
ing so long been favoured by natural selection, 
the feeling of corporate responsibility for conduct 
and opinion became so deeply grounded in men’s 
minds that it long survived the stage of social 
development in which it had its origin. Most 
conspicuous and terrible of the consequences of 
this deeply rooted feeling has been that fanatical 


288 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


craving for unity of belief in religious matters 
which has been the source of some of the worst 
evils that have afflicted mankind. But among 
the many changes which have affected the rela- 
tions of the individual to the community, with 
the growth of great and complex modern soci- 
eties, there has come the gradual substitution of 
the idea of individual responsibility for that of 
corporate responsibility. From this point of view, 
the Protestantism of Luther is significant mainly 
as a revolt against primeval notions of the rela- 
tions of the individual to the community, which 
have long since survived their usefulness. Obvi- 
ously, the disintegration of orthodoxies which 
characterizes the present age is simply the further 
development of the same protest in behalf of in- 
dividual responsibility for opinion. And to those 
who take any interest in the present discussion, 
I hardly need argue that any revival of the meth- 
ods of Catholicism could never occur, except as 
the concomitant of a wholly improbable retrogres- 
sion of society toward the barbaric type. The 
very conception of an infallible church is so 
clearly a survival from primitive religious ideas, 
that to imagine such an institution presiding over 
the society of the future involves a most gro- 
tesque anachronism. Nevertheless, the uses of 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 289 


the Catholic Church are such that it is likely still 
to survive for a very long time, though with di- 
minishing influence; and as it affords a refuge 
for such earnest and thoughtful souls as find the 
atmosphere of free discussion too bracing, it will 
probably long continue to receive accessions from 
the ranks of the various Protestant orthodoxies 
that are now so rapidly disintegrating. 

With the fading away of the old notion of cor- 
porate responsibility for ofinion, the value at- 
tached to unity of belief has greatly diminished, 
and attempts to secure such unity by violent 
means have become generally discredited. It is 
at last beginning to be apprehended that if unity 
of belief is to have any real value, it can only be 
when it is the result of the free working of differ- 
ent minds. But unity of belief in religious mat- 
ters is not very likely to be reached in any such 
way, for the conditions of the case are totally © 
different from those of scientific discussion. The 
difference may be best appreciated by recalling 
the useful distinction drawn by positivism between 
science and metaphysics. According to positivism, 
the essential distinction between a scientific hy- 
pothesis, such as the undulatory theory of light,. 
and a metaphysical hypothesis, such as the Leib- 


nitzian theory of preéstablished harmony, is that 
19 


290 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


the one admits of verification — whether by obser- 
vation, experiment, or deduction— while the other 
does not. Or, from another point of view, the one 
may be made a working hypothesis from which 
independent inquirers will arrive at mutually con- 
gruous results, while the other cannot. This dis- 
tinction is one of the very few points made by 
positivism which have been generally adopted 
into modern philosophy ; but the use which posi- 
tivists have made of at is by no means philosophi- 
cal. Comte himself set an inordinate value upon 
unity of belief, and in this his disciples have gen- 
erally followed him; and the way in which they 
propose to secure such unity is simply to ignore 
all problems whatever in which scientific methods 
of demonstration are not accessible. ‘This seems 
like paying an exorbitant price for a privilege of 
very doubtful value. But without following the 
positivists in this, we may admit the usefulness of 
their distinction between problems that transcend 
the limits of scientific demonstration and prob- 
lems that lie within those limits. Clearly, if I 
hold one opinion concerning the passage of light 
through certain crystals, and my neighbour holds 
_a different or contrary opinion, I am entitled to 
expect either that he can be brought to adopt my 
opinion, or that I can be brought to adopt his. 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 291 


Means of verification must exist ; and even if the 
question cannot be settled to-day, we have no 
doubt that it can be settled by and by. But if I 
hold one opinion concerning the conscious exist- 
ence of the soul after death, while my neighbour 
holds a contrary opinion, I am not entitled to ex- 
pect that we can ever be brought to an agree- 
ment. For the question confessedly transcends 
the limits of scientific demonstration. Yet in 
spite of all that, one of our contrary opinions, 
and possibly both, may contain some adumbra- 
tion of a truth. And more than a faint glimmer- 
ing of truth we can hardly expect to be contained 
in any of our opinions on religious matters, for 
the problems are too vast when compared with 
our means of dealing with them. Hence, instead 
of condemning variety of belief on such subjects, 
we should rather welcome each fresh suggestion 
as possibly containing some adumbration of a 
truth which we have hitherto overlooked. 

And thus we arrive at last at the true lesson of 
Protestantism, which is simply this : that religious 
belief is something which in no way concerns so- 
ciety, but which concerns only the individual. In 
all other relations the individual is more or less 
responsible to society ; but, as for his religious be- 
lief and his religious life, these are mattcrs which 


292 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


lie solely between himself and his God. On such 
subjects no man may rightfully chide his neigh- 
bour, or call him foolish; for, in presence of the 
transcendent Reality, the foolishness of one man 
differs not much from the wisdom of another. 
When this lesson sha‘l have been duly compre- 
hended and taken to heart, I make no doubt that 
religious speculation will continue to go on: but 


> 


such words as ‘ infidelity ” and “heresy,” the~ 
present currency of which serves only to show 
how the remnants of primitive barbaric thought 
still cling to us and hamper our progress — such 
words will have become obsolete, and perhaps un- 
intelligible, save to the philosophic student of his- 
tory. In discussion conducted in such a mood, 
there will, no doubt, be a great lack of finality. 
But the craving for finality is itself, in various de- 
grees, an instinct of the uneducated man, of the 
child, of the savage, and perhaps of the brute. 
To feel that the last word has been said on any 
subject is not a desideratum with the true philos- 
opher, who knows full well that the truth he an- 
nounces to-day will open half a dozen questions 
where it settles one, and will presently be vari- 
ously qualified, and at last absorbed in some wider 
and deeper truth. When all this shall have come 
to be realized, and shall have been made part 


The True Lesson of Protestantism. 298 


and parcel of the daily mental habit of men, then 
our human treatment of religion will no longer 
be what it has too often been in the past,—a 
wretched squabble, fit only for the demons of 
Malebolge, — but it wil! have come to be like 
the sweet discourse of saints in Dante’s “ Para- 
dise.” 


September, 1881. 


XI 
EVOLUTION AND RELIGION.1 


Mr. PRESIDENT:? The thought which you 
have uttered suggests so many and such fruitful 
themes of discussion that a whole evening would 
not suffice to enumerate them, while to illustrate 
them properly would seem to require an octavo 
volume rather than a talk of six or eight minutes, 
especially when such a talk comes just after 
dinner. The Amazulu saying which you have 
cited, that those who have ‘ stuffed bodies ”’ can- 
not see hidden things, seems peculiarly applicable 
to any attempt to discuss the mysteries of re- 
ligion at the present moment; and, after the 
additional warning we have just had from our 
good friend Mr. Schurz, I hardly know whether I 
ought to venture to approach so vast a theme. 
There are one or two points of signal importance, 
however, to which I may at least call attention 


1 Speech at the farewell dinner given to Herbert Spencer, in New 
York, November 9, 1882. 
2 Hon. W. M. Evarts. 


Evolution and Religion. 295 


for a moment. It is a matter which has long 
since taken deep hold of my mind, and I am glad 
to have a chance to say something about it on so 
fitting an occasion. We have met here this even- 
ing to do homage to a dear and noble teacher and 
friend, and it is well that we should choose this 
time to recall the various aspects of the immor- 
tal work by which he has earned the gratitude of 
a world. The work which Herbert Spencer has 
done in organizing the different departments of 
human knowledge, so as to present the widest 
generalizations of all the sciences in a new and 
wonderful light, as flowing out of still deeper and 
wider truths concerning the universe as a whole ; 
the great number of profound generalizations 
which he has established incidentally to the pur- 
suit of this main object; the endlessly rich and 
suggestive thoughts which he has thrown out in 
such profusion by the wayside all along the course 
of this great philosophical enterprise, — all this 
work is so manifest that none can fail to recognize 
it. It is work of the calibre of that which Aris- 
totle and Newton did. Though coming in this 
latter age, it as far surpasses their work in its 
vastness of performance as the railway surpasses 
the sedan-chair, or as the telegraph surpasses the 
carrier-pigeon. 


296 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


But it is not of this side of our teacher’s work 
that I wish to speak, but of a side of it that has 
hitherto met with less general recognition. There 
are some people who seem to think that it is not 
enough that Mr. Spencer should have made all 
these priceless contributions to human knowledge, 
but actually complain of him for not givifg us a 
complete and exhaustive system of theology into 
the bargain. What I wish, therefore, to point out 
is that Mr. Spencer’s work on the side of religion 
will be seen to be no less important than his work 
on the side of science, when once its religious im- 
plications shall have been fully and consistently 
unfolded. 

If we look at all the systems or forms of relig- 
ion of which we have any knowledge, we shall 
find that they differ in many superficial features. 
They differ in many of the transcendental doc- 
trines which they respectively preach, and in 
many of the rules of conduct which they respec- 
tively lay down for men’s guidance. ‘They assert 
different things about the universe, and they en- 
join or prohibit different kinds of behaviour on 
the part of their followers. The doctrine of the 
Trinity, which to many Christians is the most 
sacred of mysteries, is to all Mohammedans the 
foulest of blasphemies. ‘The Brahman’s conscience 


Evolution and Religion. 297 


would be more troubled if he were to kill a cow 
by accident than if he were to swear to a lie or 
steal a purse. The Turk, who sees no wrong in 
bigamy, would shrink from the sin of eating pork. 
But, amid all such surface differences we find 
throughout all known religions two points of 
substantial agreement. And these two points of 
agreement will be admitted by modern civilized 
men to be of far greater importance than the 
innumerable differences of detail. All religions 
agree in the two following assertions, one of which 
is of speculative and one of which is of ethical 
import. One of them serves to sustain and har- 
monize our thoughts about the world we live in 
and our place in that world; the other serves to 
uphold us in our efforts to do each what we can 
to make human life more sweet, more full of good- 
ness and beauty, than we find it. The first of 
these assertions is the proposition that the things 
and events of the world do not exist or occur 
blindly or irrelevantly, but that all, from the 
beginning to the end of time, and throughout the 
farthest sweep of illimitable space, are connected 
together as the orderly manifestations of a divine 
Power, and that this divine Power is something 
outside of ourselves, and upon it our own exist- 
ence from moment to moment depends. The 


298 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


second of these assertions is the proposition that 
men ought to do certain things, and ought to re 
frain from doing certain other things; and that the 
reason why some things are wrong to do and other 
things are right to do is in some mysterious but 
very real way connected with the existence and 
nature of this divine Power, which reveals itself 
in every great and every tiny thing, without 
which not a star courses in its mighty orbit, and 
not a sparrow falls to the ground. Matthew 
Arnold once summed up these two propositions 
very well, when he defined God as “an eternal 
Power, not ourselves, that makes for righteous- 
ness.” This twofold assertion, that there is an 
eternal Power that is not ourselves, and that this 
Power makes for righteousness, is to be found, 
either in a rudimentary or in a highly developed 
state, in all known religions. In such religions 
' as those of the Eskimos or of your friends, the 
Amazulus, Mr. President, this assertion is found 
in a rudimentary shape on each of its two sides, — 
the speculative side and the ethical side; in such 
religions as Buddhism or Judaism, it is found in 
a highly developed shape on both its sides. But 
the main point is that in all religions ‘you find it 
in some shape or other. 

U said, a moment ago, that modern civilized men 


Evolution and Religion. 299 


will all acknowledge that this two-sided assertion 
in which all religions agree is of far greater im- 
portance than any of the superficial points in 
which religions differ. It is really of much more 
concern to us that there is an eternal Power, not 
ourselves, that makes for righteousness, than that 
such a Power is onefold or threefold in its meta- 
physical nature, or that we ought not to play cards 
on Sunday or to eat meat on Friday. No one, I 
believe, will deny so simple and clear a statement 
as this. But it is not only we modern men, who 
call ourselves enlightened, that will agree to this. 
I doubt not even the narrow-minded bigots of 
days now happily gone by would have been made 
to agree to it, if they could have had some dog- 
gedly persistent Sokrates to cross-question them. 
Calvin was willing to burn Servetus for doubting 
the doctrine of the Trinity, but I do not suppose 
that even Calvin would have argued that the 
belief in God’s threefold nature was more funda- 
mental than the belief in his existence and his 
goodness. ‘The philosophical error with him was 
that he could not dissociate the less important 
doctrine from the more important doctrine, and 
the fate of the latter seemed to him wrapped up 
with the fate of the former. I cite this merely as 
a typical example. What men in past times have 


300 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


really valued in their religion has been the uni- 
versal twofold assertion that there is a God who is 
pleased by the sight of the just man and is angry 
with the wicked every day ; and when men have 
fought with one another, and murdered or calum- 
niated one another for heresy about the Trin- 
ity or about eating meat on Friday, it has been 
because they have supposed belief in the non- 
essential doctrines to be inseparably connected 
with belief in the essential doctrine. In spite of 
all this, however, it is true that in the mind of 
the uncivilized man the great central truths of re- 
ligion are so densely overlaid with hundreds of 
trivial notions respecting dogma and ritual that 
his perception of the great central truths is ob- 
scure. These great central truths, indeed, need 
to be clothed in a dress of little rites and supersti- 
tions, in order to take hold of his dull and un- 
trained intelligence. But, in proportion as men 
become more civilized, and learn to think more 
accurately, and to take wider views of life, just 
so do they come to value the essential truths of 
religion more highly, while they attach less and 
less importance to superficial details. 

Having thus seen what is meant by the essen- 
tial truths of religion, it is very easy to see what 
the attitude of the doctrine of evolution is toward 


Evolution and Religion. 301 


these essential truths. It asserts and reiterates 
them both; and it asserts them not as dogmas 
handed down to us by priestly tradition, not as 
mysterious intuitive convictions of which we can 
render no intelligible account to ourselves, but as 
scientific truths concerning the innermost consti- 
tution of ‘the universe, truths that have been dis- 
closed by observation and reflection, like other 
scientific truths, and that accordingly harmonize 
naturally and easily with the whole body of our 
knowledge. The doctrine of evolution asserts, as 
the widest and deepest truth which the study of 
nature can disclose to us, that there exists a 
Power to which no limit in time or space is con- 
ceivable, and that all the phenomena of the uni- 
verse, whether they be what we call material or 
what we call spiritual phenomena, are manifesta- 
tions of this infinite and eternal Power. Now, 
this assertion, which Mr. Spencer has so elabo- 
rately set forth as a scientific truth, — nay, as the 
ultimate truth of science, as the truth upon which 
the whole structure of human knowledge _ philo- 
sophically rests, — this assertion is identical with 
the assertion of an eternal Power, not ourselves, 
that forms the speculative basis of all religions. 
When Carlyle speaks of the universe as in very 
truth the star-domed city of God, and reminds us 


302 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


that through every crystal and through every 
grass-blade, but most through every living soul, 
the glory of a present God still beams, he means 
pretty much the same thing that Mr. Spencer 
means, save that he speaks with the language of 
poetry, with language coloured by emotion, and 
not with the precise, formal, and colourless lan- 
guage of science. By many critics who forget that 
names are but the counters rather than the hard 
money of thought, objections have been raised to 
the use of such a phrase as the Unknowable 
whereby to describe the power that is manifested 
in every event of the universe. Yet, when the 
Hebrew prophet declared that “by Him were 
laid the foundations of the deep,” but reminded 
us, “* Who by searching can find Him out?” he 
meant pretty much what Mr. Spencer means when 
he speaks of a Power that is inscrutable in itself, 
yet is revealed from moment to moment in every 
throb of the mighty rhythmic life of the uni- 
verse. 

And this brings me to the last and most im- 
portant point of all. What says the doctrine of 
evolution with regard to the ethical side of this 
twofold assertion that lies at the bottom of all re- 
ligion? Though we cannot fathom the nature of 
the inscrutable Power that animates the world, we 


Evolution and Religion. 303 


know, nevertheless, a great many things that it 
does. Does this eternal Power, then, work for 
righteousness ? Is there a divine sanction for ho- 
liness and a divine condemnation for sin? Are 
the principles of right living really connected with 
the intimate constitution of the universe? If the 
answer of science to these questions be aflfirma- 
tive, then the agreement with religion is com- 
plete, both on the speculative and on the practi- 
cal sides; and that phantom which has been the 
abiding terror of timid and superficial minds — 
that phantom of the hostility between religion 
and science — is exorcised now and for ever. 
Now science began to return a decisively affirm- 
ative answer to such questions as these, when it 
began, with Mr. Spencer, to explain moral beliefs 
and moral sentiments as products of evolution. 
For clearly, when you say of a moral belief or a 
moral sentiment that it is a product of evolution, 
you imply that it is something which the universe 
through untold ages has been labouring to bring 
forth, and you ascribe to it a value proportionate 
to the enormous effort that it has cost to produce 
it. Still more, when with Mr. Spencer we study 
the principles of right living as part and parcel 
of the whole doctrine of the development of life 
upon the earth; when we see that, in an ultimate 


304 Excursions of an EKvolutionist. 


analysis, that is right which tends to enhance ful- 
ness of life, and that is wrong which tends to de- 
tract from fulness of life, — we then see that the 
distinction between right and wrong is rooted in 
the deepest foundations of the universe; we see 
that the very same forces, subtle and exquisite and 
profound, which brought upon the scene the primal 
germs of life and caused them to unfold, which 
through countless ages of struggle and death have 
cherished the life that could live more perfectly 
and destroyed the life that could only live less per- 
fectly, until Humanity, with all its hopes and fears 
and aspirations, has come into being as the crown 
of all this stupendous work, —vwe see that these 
very same subtle and exquisite forces have wrought 
into the very fibres of the universe those princi- 
ples of right living which it is man’s highest func- 
tion to put into practice. The theoretical sanc- 
tion thus given to right living is incomparably the 
most powerful that has ever been assigned in any 
philosophy of ethics. Human responsibility is 
made more strict and solemn than ever, when the 
eternal Power that lives in every event of the 
universe is thus seen to be in the deepest possible 
sense the author of the moral law that should 
guide our lives, and in obedience to which les our 
only guarantee of the happiness which is incor- 


Evolution and Religion. 305 


ruptible, — which neither inevitable misfortune 
nor unmerited obloquy can ever take away. 

I have here but barely touched upon a rich and 
suggestive topic. When this subject shall once 
have been expounded and illustrated with due 
thoroughness, —as I earnestly hope it will be 
within the next few years, — then I am sure it 
will be generally acknowledged that our great 
teacher’s services to religion have been no less 
signal than his services to science, unparalleled 
as these have been in all the history of the world. 


November, 1882. 
20 


XII. 


THE MEANING OF INFANCY! 


WHAT is the Meaning of Infancy? What is 
the meaning of the fact that man is born into the 
world more helpless than any other creature, and 
needs for a much longer season than any other 
living thing the tender care and wise counsel of 
his elders? It is one of the most familiar of 
facts that man, alone among animals, exhibits a 
capacity for progress. That man is widely differ- 
ent from other animals in the length of his ado- 
lescence and the utter helplessness of his baby- 
hood, is an equally familiar fact. Now between 
these two commonplace facts is there any con- 
nection? Is it a mere accident that the creature 
which is distinguished as progressive should also 
be distinguished as coming slowly to maturity, 
or is there a reason lying deep down in the na- 
ture of things why this should be so? I think 


1 A very brief restatement, in simple language, of the main points 
of the theory of man’s origin first suggested in my lectures at Har- 
vard University in 1871, and worked out in Outlines of Cosmic Phi- 
losophy, part II., chapters xvi., xxi., and xxii. 


The Meaning of Infancy. 307 


it can be shown, with very few words, that be- 
tween these two facts there is a connection that 
is deeply inwrought with the processes by which 
life has been evolved upon the earth. It can be 
shown that man’s progressiveness and the length 
of his infancy are but two sides of one and the 
same fact; and in showing this, still more will 
appear. It will appear that it was the lengthen- 
ing of infancy which ages ago gradually converted 
our forefathers from brute creatures into human 
creatures. It is babyhood that has made man 
what he is. The simple unaided operation of 
natural selection could never have resulted in the 
origination of the human race. Natural selection 
might have gone on forever improving the breed 
of the highest animal in many ways, but it could 
never unaided have started the process of civiliza- 
tion or have given to man those peculiar attri- 
butes in virtue of which it has been well said that 
the difference between him and the highest of 
apes immeasurably transcends in value the differ- 
ence between an ape and a blade of grass. In 
order to bring about that wonderful event, the 
Creation of Man, natural selection had to call in 
the aid of other agencies, and the chief of these 
agencies was the gradual lengthening of baby- 
hood. 


308 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Such is the point which I wish to illustrate in 
few words, and to indicate some of its bearings on 
the history of human progress. Let us first ob- 
serve what it was that lengthened the infancy of 
the highest animal, for then we shall be the bet- 
ter able to understand the character of the pro- 
digious effects which this infancy has wrought. 
A few familiar facts concerning the method in 
which men learn how to do things will help us 
here. 

When we begin to learn to play the piano, we 
have to devote much time and thought to the ad- 
justment and movement of our fingers and to the 
interpretation of the vast and complicated mul- 
titude of symbols which make up the printed 
page of music that stands before us. For a long 
time, therefore, our attempts are feeble and stam- 
mering and they require the full concentrated 
power of the mind. Yet a trained pianist will 
play a new piece of music at sight, and perhaps 
have so much attention to spare that he can talk 
with you at the same time. What an enormous 
number of mental acquisitions have in this case 
become almost instinctive or automatic! It is 
just so in learning a foreign language, and it was 
just the same when in childhood we learned to 
walk, to talk, and to write. It is just the same, 


The Meaning of Infancy. 309 


too, in learning to think about abstruse subjects. 
What at first strains the attention to the utmost, 
and often wearies us, comes at last to be done 
without effort and almost unconsciously. Great 
minds thus travel over vast fields of thought with 
an ease of which they are themselves unaware. 
Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch once said that in trans- 
lating the * Mécanique Céleste,” he had come 
upon formulas which Laplace introduced with the 
word “obviously,” where it took nevertheless 
many days of hard study to supply the interme- 
diate steps through which that transcendent mind 
had passed with one huge leap of inference. At 
some time in his youth no doubt Laplace had to 
think of these things, just as Rubinstein had 
once to think how his fingers should be placed on 
the keys of the piano; but what was once the ob- 
ject of conscious attention comes at last to be 
wellnigh automatic, while the flight of the con- 
scious mind goes on ever to higher and vaster 
themes. 

Let us now take a long leap from the highest 
level of human intelligence to the mental life of 
a turtle or a codfish. In what does the mental 
life of such creatures consist? It consists of a 
few simple acts mostly concerned with the secur- 
ing of food and the avoiding of danger, and these 


310 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


few simple acts are repeated with unvarying mo- 
notony during the whole lifetime of these crea- 
tures. Consequently these acts are performed 
with great ease and are attended with very little 
consciousness, and moreover the capacity to per- 
form them is transmitted from parent to offspring 
as completely as the capacity of the stomach to di- 
gest food is transmitted. In all animals the new- 
born stomach needs but the contact with food in 
order to begin digesting, and the new-born lungs 
need but the contact with air in order to begin to 
breathe. The capacity for performing these per- 
petually-repeated visceral actions is transmitted in 
perfection. All the requisite nervous connections 
are fully established during the brief embryonic 
existence of each creature. In the case of lower 
animals it is almost as much so with the few sim- 
ple actions which make up the creature’s mental 
life. The bird known as the fly-catcher no sooner 
breaks the egg than it will snap at and catcha 
fly. This action is not so very simple, but be- 
cause it is something the bird is always doing, 
being indeed one out of the very few things that 
this bird ever does, the nervous connections need- 
ful for doing it are all established before birth, 
and nothing but the presence of the fly is required 
to set the operation going. 


The Meaning of Infancy. 311 


With such creatures as the codfish, the turtle, 
or the fly-catcher, there is accordingly nothing 
that can properly be called infancy. With them 
the sphere of education is extremely limited. 
They get their education before they are born. 
In other words, heredity does everything for 
them, education nothing. ‘The career of the in- 
dividual is predetermined by the careers of his an- 
cestors, and he can do almost nothing to vary it. 
The life of such creatures is conservatism cut and 
dried, and there is nothing progressive about 
them. 

In what I just said I left an “almost.”’ There 
is a great deal of saving virtue in that little ad- 
verb, Doubtless even animals low in the scale 
possess some faint traces of educability ; but they 
are so very slight that it takes geologic ages to 
produce an appreciable result. In all the innu- 
merable wanderings, fights, upturnings and cata- 
clysms of the earth’s stupendous career, each 
creature has been summoned under penalty of 
death to use what little wit he may have had, 
and the slightest trace of mental flexibility is of 
such priceless value in the struggle for existence 
that natural selection must always have seized 
upon it, and sedulously hoarded and transmitted 
it for coming generations to strengthen and in- 


312 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


crease. With the lapse of geologic time the up- 
per grades of animal intelligence have doubtless 
been raised higher and higher through natural 
selection. The warm-blooded mammals and birds 
of to-day no doubt surpass the cold-blooded di- 
nosaurs of the Jurassic age in mental qualities as 
they surpass them in physical structure. From 
the codfish and turtle of ancient family to the 
modern lion, dog, and monkey, it is a very long 
step upward. The mental life of a warm-blooded 
animal is a very different affair from that of rep- 
tiles and fishes. A squirrel or a bear does a good 
many things in the course of his life. He meets 
various vicissitudes in various ways; he has ad- 
ventures. ‘The actions he performs are so com. 
plex and so numerous that they are severally per- 
formed with less frequency than the few actions 
performed by the codfish. The requisite nervous 
connections are accordingly not fully established 
before birth. There is not time enough. The 
nervous connections needed for the visceral move- 
ments and for the few simple instinctive actions 
get organized, and then the creature is born be- 
fore he has learned bow to do all the things his 
parents could do. A good many of his ner- 
vous connections are not yet formed, they are 
only formable. Accordingly he is not quite able 


The Meaning of Infancy. 318 


to take care of himself; he must for a time be 
watched and nursed. All mammals and most 
birds have thus a period of babyhood that is not 
very long, but is on the whole longest with the 
most intelligent creatures. It is especially long 
with the higher monkeys, and among the man- 
like apes it becomes so long as to be strikingly 
suggestive. An infant orang-outang, captured by 
Mr. Wallace, was still a helpless baby at the age 
of three months, unable to feed itself, to walk 
without aid, or to grasp objects with precision. 

But this period of helplessness has to be viewed 
under another aspect. It isa period of plasticity. 
The creature’s career is no longer exclusively 
determined by heredity. There is a period after 
birth when its character can be slightly modified 
by what happens to it after birth, that is, by its 
experience as an individual. It becomes edu- 
cable. It is no longer necessary for each genera- 
tion to be exactly like that which has preceded. 
A door is opened through which the capacity for 
progress can enter. Horses and dogs, bears and 
elephants, parrots and monkeys, are all teachable 
to some extent, and we have even heard of a 
learned pig. Of learned asses there has been no 
lack in the world. 

But this educability of the higher mammals 


314 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


and birds is after all quite limited. By the be- 
ginnings of infancy the door for progressiveness 
was set ajar, but it was not all at once thrown 
wide open. Conservatism still continued in fash- 
ion. One generation of cattle is much lke an- 
other. It would be easy for foxes to learn to 
climb trees, and many a fox might have saved 
his life by doing so; yet quickwitted as he is, 
this obvious device never seems to have occurred 
to Reynard. Among slightly teachable mammals, 
however, there is one group more teachable than 
the rest. Monkeys, with their greater power of 
handling things, have also more inquisitiveness 
and more capacity for sustained attention than 
any other mammals; and the higher apes are 
fertile in varied resources. The orang-outang 
and gorilla are for this reason dreaded by other 
animals, and roam the undisputed lords of their 
native forests. They have probably approached 
the critical point where variations in intelligence, 
always important, have come to be supremely 
important, so as to be seized by natural selection 
in preference to variations in physical constitu- 
tion. At some remote epoch of the past — we 
cannot say just when or how — our half-human 
forefathers reached and passed this critical point, 
and forthwith their varied struggles began age 


The Meaning of Infancy. 315 


after age to result in the preservation of bigger 
and better brains, while the rest of their bodies 
changed but little. This particular work of nat- 
ural selection must have gone on for an enor- 
mous length of time, and as its result we see that 
while man remains anatomically much lke an 
ape, he has acquired a vastly greater brain with 
all that this implies. Zodlogically the distance is 
small between man and the chimpanzee; psycho- 
logically it has become so great as to be im- 
measurable. 

But this steady increase of intelligence, as our 
forefathers began to become human, carried with 
it a steady prolongation of infancy. As mental 
life became more complex and various, as the 
things to be learned kept ever multiplying, less 
and less could be done before birth, more and 
more must be left to be done in the earlier years 
of life. So instead of being born with a few 
simple capacities thoroughly organized, man came 
at last to be born with the germs of many com- 
plex capacities which were reserved to be un- 
folded and enhanced or checked and stifled by 
the incidents of personal experience in each in- 
dividual. In this simple yet wonderful way there 
has been provided for man a long period during 
which his mind is plastic and malleable, and 


316 Excursions 6° an Evolutionist. 


the length of this period has increased with civil- 
ization until it now covers nearly one third of our 
lives. It is not that our inherited tendencies and 
aptitudes are not still the main thing. It is only 
that we have at last acquired great power to mod- 
ify them by training, so that progress may go on 
with ever-increasing sureness and rapidity. 

In thus pointing out the causes of infancy, we 
have at the same time witnessed some of its ef- 
fects. One effect, of stupendous importance, re- 
mains to be pointed cut. As helpless babyhood 
came more and more to depend on parental care, 
the correlated feelings were developed on the 
part of parents, and the fleeting sexual relations 
established among mammals in general were 
gradually exchanged for permanent relations. A 
cow feels strong maternal affection for her nurs- 
ing calf, but after the calf is fully grown, though 
doubtless she distinguishes it from other mem- 
bers of the herd, it is not clear that she enter- 
tains for it any parental feeling. But with our 
half-human forefathers it is not difficult to see 
how infancy extending over several years must 
have tended gradually to strengthen the relations 
of the children to the mother, and eventually to 
both parents, and thus give rise to the permanent 
organization of the family. When this step was 


The Meaning of Infancy. 317 


accomplished we may say that the Creation of 
Man had been achieved. For through the organ- 
ization of the family has arisen that of the clan 
or tribe, which has formed, as it were, the cellu- 
lar tissue out of which the most complex human 
society has come to be constructed. And out of 
that subordination of individual desires to the 
common interest, which first received a definite 
direction when the family was formed, there grew 
the rude beginnings of human morality. 

It was thus through the lengthening of his in- 
faney that the highest of animals came to be 
Man, — a creature with definite social relation- 
ships and with an element of plasticity in his or- 
ganization such as has come at last to make his 
difference from all other animals a difference in 
kind. Here at last there had come upon the 
scene a creature endowed with the capacity for 
progress, and a new chapter was thus opened in 
the history of creation. But it was not to be 
expected that man should .all at once learn how 
to take advantage of this capacity. Nature, 
which is said to make no jumps, surely did not 
jump here. The whole history of civilization, 
indeed, is largely the history of man’s awkward 
and stumbling efforts to avail himself of this 
flexibility of mental constitution with which God 


318 Excursions of an KHvolutionist. 


has endowed him. For many a weary age the 
progress men achieved was feeble and halting. 
Though it had ceased to be physically necessary 
for each generation to tread exactly in the steps 
of its predecessor, yet the circumstances of prim- 
itive society long made it very difficult for any 
deviation to be effected. For the tribes of prim- 
itive men were perpetually at war with each — 
other, and their methods of tribal discipline were 
military methods. To allow much freedom of 
thought would be perilous, and the whole tribe 
was supposed to be responsible for the words and 
deeds of each of its members. The tribes most. 
rigorous in this stern discipline were those which 
killed out tribes more loosely organized, and thus 
survived to hand down to coming generations 
their ideas and their methods. From this state 
of things an intense social conservatism was be- 
gotten, — a strong disposition on the part of soci- 
ety to destroy the flexible-minded individual who 
dares to think and behave differently from his 
fellows. During the past three thousand years 
much has been done to weaken this conservatism 
by putting an end to the state of things which 
produced it. As great and strong societies have 
arisen, as the sphere of warfare has diminished 
while the sphere of industry has enlarged, the 


The Meaning of Infancy. 319 


need for absolute conformity has ceased to be felt, 
while the advantages of freedom and variety 
come to be ever more clearly apparent. At a late 
stage of civilization, the flexible or plastic society 
acquires even a military advantage over. the soci- 
ety that is more rigid, as in the struggle between 
French and English civilization for primacy in 
the world. In our own country, the political 
birth of which dates from the triumph of Eng- 
land in that mighty struggle, the element of plas- 
ticity in man’s nature is more thoroughly heeded, 
more fully taken account of, than in any other 
community known to history ; and herein lies the 
chief potency of our promise for the future. We 
have come to the point where we are beginning 
to see that we may safely depart from unreason- 
ing routine, and, with perfect freedom of think- 
ing in science and in religion, with new methods 
of education that shall train our children to 
think for themselves while they interrogate Na- 
ture with a courage and an insight that shall 
grow ever bolder and keener, we may ere long be 
able fully to avail ourselves of the fact that we 
come into the world as little children with unde- 
veloped powers wherein lie latent all the bound- 
less possibilities of a higher and grander Human- 
ity than has yet been seen upon the earth. 

* October, 1883. 


XII. 
A UNIVERSE OF MIND-STUFF. 


THE author of these two remarkable volumes ? 
died last March in the island of Madeira, at the 
early age of thirty-three, the victim, apparently, 
of what is called * overwork,’ —that is, of work 
long pursued in utter disregard of the necessary 
limitations and imperative requirements of the 
human system. Never, perhaps, has the demon 
of overwork carried off a more illustrious victim. 
Never, perhaps, has it been more strikingly shown 
of how little avail is the mere knowledge of hy- 
giene in insuring obedience to its precepts. No 
one understood better than Clifford what are pop- 
ularly known as the laws of health; no one had 
fathomed more deeply or discussed more lucidly 
the dependence of the mind upon the body; no 
one in our time has been better able to apply in 
the physiological domain the most accurate and 
definite conceptions of the relations of energy to 


1 Lectures and Essays. By the late William Kingdon Clifford, 
_ F.R.S. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock. 2 vols. 
8vo. London: Macmillan & Co. 1879. 


o 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 821 


work. Yet from all I have been able to learn re- 
garding Clifford’s intellectual life, it would seem 
to have been at all times carried on with an in- 
tensely passionate, irrepressible zeal, as regard- 
less of all physical laws as if the mind were not 
merely a distinct but an independent entity, un- 
hampered even during the present life by physical 
conditions. 

I cite this singular discrepancy between knowl- 
edge and practice on account of its intrinsic in- 
terest, not in reproof of the course of a friend 
whose loss I must ever mourn. Admitting, with 
Mr. Spencer, that one is morally bound so to 
treat the body as not ‘in any way to diminish the 
fulness or vigour of its vitality,” one sees at the 
same time that, as the world is now constituted, 
emergencies often arise which subordinate to 
higher duties the duty of keeping oneself well. 
To save human life I may jump into a freezing 
river, though an ice-water bath be not recom- 
mended by hygienic advisers. So one sympa- 
thizes with the heroic sense of duty which often 
leads the scholar to toil early and late, and long 
after weariness has set in, in the performance of 
work which is expected of him, — though in 
many cases the work itself may be obscure in 


fame and the taskmaster thankless and treacher- 
21 


322 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ous. For my own part I sympathize keenly, too, 
with a very different feeling, — with that glorious 
exuberance of vital energy which in youthful days 
leads one far on into the night, working with « 
kind of sacred fury to seize and secure the sud. 
den glimpses of the fairyland of scientific truth 
or literary beauty ere drowsy memory shall let 
them slip and fade away. I think it very likely 
that in many such cases a systematic self-repres- 
sion, in deference to hygienic consideration. 
might be just enough to clip down the brilliant 
discoverer or original thinker into a mere scien 
tific or literary prig. The secrets of Nature and 
of Art are not to be won without struggles; and 
in the serene regions of philosophic meditation, 
no less than in the turmoil of practical life, the 
highest results are often accomplished by those 
who work with desperate energy quite regardless 
of self. Generous feelings of this sort have no 
doubt frequently urged great thinkers, like Clif- 
ford, fatally to overtask their physical resources ; 
and such mistakes are peculiarly facilitated by the 
accommodating disposition of that faithful servant 
the brain, which in men of highly-strung nervous 
temperament is but too ready to keep at its work 
without protest, as a thoroughbred horse will run 
till it drops. 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 323 


In Clifford’s case this prodigious enthusiasm for 
work, joined with an inherited weakness of con- 
stitution, has robbed the world of one of its most 
valuable lives. But though his life was brief, it 
was wonderfully rich in achievement no less than 
‘in promise. He had discerned more, and dis- 
cerned it more clearly, in his score and a half of 
years than most men discern in fourscore. In 
pure mathematics he was admitted, at the age of 
twenty-five, to be one of the first five or six orig- 
inal thinkers of Europe. I say this from hear- 
say, for my own knowledge of the subject is not 
sufficient to enable me to comprehend his mathe- 
matical achievements or to appreciate their bear- 
ing. But the power and acuteness with which he 
treated questions in physics and in general philos- 
ophy were very marvellous, and his suggestiveness 
was so great as already to have entitled him toa 
high rank among contemporary philosophers. It 
was impossible for him to touch upon any subject 
without throwing some new light upon it, for the 
mere restatement of an old truth in his powerful 
and luminous language was sure to invest it with 
fresh and beautiful significance. His skill in sci- 
entific exposition was, accordingly, very remark- 
able. For taking the most hopelessly complicated 
and abstruse subjects and making them seem per 


824 Excursions of an KHvolutionist. 


fectly simple and almost self-evident to ordinary 
minds, I do not know who could be found to com- 
pare with him. This rare power he owed largely 
to the extreme vividness of his imagination. 
What he saw “ with his mind’s eye,” he saw as 
accurately and distinctly as only keen observers’ 
see things when they look with the physical eye. 
This is well illustrated in his lecture on ** Atoms,”’ 
and in various passages where he has occasion to 
allude to the intimate constitution of matter, to 
solidity, liquidity, quantivalence, and so on. Peo- 
ple generally, when they talk about atoms, think 
only of very little particles, without having in 
mind anything about their various shapes and 
modes of behaviour. Even scientific men, who 
get on well enough by the aid of established for- 
mulas, now and then betray a similar barrenness 
of conception when some novel point comes up 
for discussion. But Clifford would describe a 
cluster of atoms with as much minuteness and as 
much animation as a fashionable lady would dis- 
play in describing the gorgeous costumes of last 
night’s ball. ‘Take the air of this room, for ex- 
ample, which does not fill up all the space in the 
room, but is composed of a prodigious number of 
discrete particles of two sorts, — one sort called 
molecules of oxygen, the other sort called mole- 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 325 


cules of nitrogen. ‘ These small molecules,” says 
Clifford, “ are not at rest in the room, but are fly- 
ing about in all directions with a mean velocity of 
seventeen miles a minute. They do not fly far in 
one direction; but any particular molecule, after 
going over an incredibly short distance — the 
measure of which has been made — meets an- 
other, not exactly plump, but a little on one side; 
so that they behave to one another somewhat in 
the same way as two people do who are dancing 
Sir Roger de Coverley, — they join hands, swing 
around, and then fly away in different directions. 
All these molecules are constantly changing the 
direction of each other’s motion; they are flying 
about with very different velocities, although, as 
I have said, their mean velocity is about seventeen 
miles a minute. If the velocities were all marked 
off on a scale, they would be found distributed 
about the mean velocity just as shots are distrib- 
uted about a mark. If a great many shots are 
fired at a target, the hits will be found thickest at 
the bull’s-eye, and they will gradually diminish as 
we go away from that, according to a certain law 
which is called the law of error. It was first 
stated clearly by Laplace; and it is one of the 
most remarkable consequences of theory that the 
molecules of a gas have their velocities distributed 


326 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


among them precisely according to this law of 
error. In the case of a liquid, it 1s believed that 
the state of things is quite different. We said that 
in the gas the molecules are moved in straight 
lines, and that it is only during a small portion of 
their motion that they are deflected by other 
molecules; but in a liquid we may say that the 
molecules go about as if they were dancing the 
grand chain in the Lancers. Every molecule after 
parting company with one finds another, and so 
is constantly going about in a curved path, and 
never sent quite clear away from the sphere of 
action of the surrounding molecules. But, not- 
withstanding that, all molecules in a liquid are 
constantly changing their places, and it is for that 
reason that diffusion takes place in the liquid.... 
In the case of a solid, quite a different thing takes 
place. In a solid every molecule has a place 
which it keeps; thatis to say, it is not at rest any 
more than a molecule of a liquid ora gas, but it 
has a certain mean position which it is always 
vibrating about and keeping fairly near to, and 
it is kept from losing that position by the action 
of the surrounding molecules.” ! 

Such scientific exposition as this is as beautiful 
as poetry. In reading it one feels how the glory 

1 Vol. i. p. 194. 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 327 


and beauty of Nature are immeasurably enhanced 
for the philosopher who can thus with inward 
vision distinctly grasp objects and relations too 
subtile for the eye of sense in any wise to discern. 

This same remarkable lucidity is exhibited by 
Clifford in the treatment of metaphysical prob- 
lems. In some respects the most striking dis- 
cussion in the present volume is contained in the 
essay on “The Nature of Things-in-themselves,”’ 
where some of the latest suggestions of anti- 
materialistic philosophy are very forcibly pre- 
sented. Starting from the impregnable Berkeleian 
position that the material world of which I am 
conscious exists only as an organized series of 
changes in my consciousness, Clifford introduces 
a very interesting and suggestive distinction be- 
tween the objective and the ejective elements in 
cognition. Our inferences concerning the material 
world are all inferences concerning either some 
actual or some potential states of consciousness. 
When I describe the moon at. which I am looking, 
I am describing merely a plexus of optical sensa- 
tions with sundry revived states of mind linked 
by various laws of association with the optical 
sensations. When I say that the moon existed 
before I was born, I only mean that if I had been 
alive a century ago and stood here and looked up 


328 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


as I am now doing, I should have had a similar 
plexus of optical sensations and revived states of 
mind to describe. Obviously there is nothing else 
which I can mean; in any statement which I may 
make concerning the world of matter, I can refer 
only to things which either are, or may be, or 
might have been, objects in my consciousness. 
But it is quite otherwise when I make statements 
regarding the existence of minds other than my 
own. “When I come to the conclusion,” says 
Clifford, “that yow are conscious, and that there 
are objects in your consciousness similar to those 
in mine, I am not inferring any actual or possible 
feelings of my own, but your feelings, which are 
not, and cannot by any possibility become, objects 


(i 


in my consciousness.’ In the very act of inferring 
that you have feelings like mine, some of which 
you class as objective, and call the outer world, 
while others you class as subjective, —in the very 
act of inferring this I recognize these inferred 
feelings of yours as something outside of myself, 
as something which is not a part of myself and 
never could be. These inferred existences Clifford 
calls ejects, ‘things thrown out of my conscious- 
ness, to distinguish them from obvects, things 
presented in my consciousness, — phenomena.” 
My conception of you is “a rough picture of 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 329 


the whole aggregate of my consciousness, under 


> and this con- 


imagined circumstances like yours ;’ 
ception — unlike my conception of the moon, or 
of your face — implies the existence of something 
that can never in any way become a part of my 
consciousness. Your face, while I am looking at 
you, is an object in my consciousness; but your 
consciousness can never be an object in mine, — it 
is an eject, something entirely outside of my con- 
sciousness. And so, too, your thoughts and feel- 
ings, the objects in your mind, are to me ejects. 
Now my belief in the existence of ejects affects 
essentially my conception of objects. As a simple 
object, the table is but a group of my states of 
consciousness ; but when I speak to you of the 
table, I infer the existence in you of a similar 
group of states of consciousness, — and this group 
is an eject. When I think or speak of the table, 
I bind up together the individual object as it 
exists in my mind with an indefinite number of 
ejects assumed to resemble it ; and thus is formed 
the complex conception which Clifford calls the 
social object, — that is, the conception of the table 
as an object in human consciousness in general. 
There now ensues an ingenious and interesting 
series of inferences. Before our ancestors had 
become men, or were endowed with anything like 


330 - Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


a human consciousness, there is every reason for 
supposing them to have been gregarious in their 
habits. They were gregarious primates of high 
sagacity. But gregarious action, among animals 
endowed with any sort of consciousness, is plainly 
impossible unless the individual animal recognizes 
his fellow’s consciousness as similar to or kindred 
with his own. Above all, the first beginnings of 
speech necessarily involved a belief in the eject. 
But now, says Clifford, ‘if not only this concep- 
tion of the particular social object, but all those 
that have been built up out of it, have been 
formed at the same time with, and under the in- 
fluence of, language, it seems to follow that the 
belief in the existence of other men’s minds like 
our own, but not part of us, must be inseparably 
associated with every process whereby discrete im- 
pressions are built together into an object.” To 
vary the quaint expression of Ferrier, the minz- 
mum scibile per se is not exactly ego plus object, 
but itis ego plus eject. Along with what we call 
the objective element in every piece of our knowl- 
edge there is not only a reference to self, but 
there is also a sub-conscious reference to other 
selves outside of us. “ And this sub-conscious 


YP] 


reference to supposed ejects,” continues Clifford, 


‘is what constitutes the impression of externality 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 331 


in the object, whereby it is described as not-me. 
At any rate, the formation of the social object 
supplies an account of this impression of outness, 
without requiring me to assume any ejects or 
things outside my consciousness except the minds 
of other men. Consequently it cannot be argued 
from the impression of outness that there is any- 
thing outside of my consciousness except the 
minds of other men.” 

By this beautiful method of presentation, so 
much fresh light is thrown upon some philosoph- 
ical truths as to make them appear self-evident. 
See what havoc it makes, at the outset, with the 
crude notion of the materialists —a notion sup- 
ported by loose popular language and loose popu- 
lar thinking —that changes of consciousness are 
caused by physical actions on or within the organ- 
ism. Materialists talk about “ideas” as “ origi- 
nating” in the brain; and people generally have 
become so far impressed with the notion »that 
mental states are caused by physical actions on 
the nervous system, that when you begin to ex- 
plain to them the wonderfully minute correlations 
between psychical action and brain-action which 
modern psychology is disclosing, they immedi- 
ately take fright and think you are ‘“ explaining 
away” the mind altogether. They think that 


832 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


in order to refute materialism it is necessary to 
deny that associations of ideas occur simulta- 
neously with the passage of waves of molecular 
motion from one cell to another in the gray sur- 
face of the brain. I wonder it never occurs to 
them that they might more summarily effect their 
purpose by denying, once for all, that the brain 
has anything. whatever to do with mind, or has 
any further function than that of a balance wheel 
or “governor” for regulating the motions of the 
viscera! But in point of fact their alarm is al- 
together groundless. ‘Those who have mastered 
the doctrine of the conservation of energy in its 
bearings upon the facts of psychology will see, 
as I demonstrated some years ago in “ Cosmic 
Philosophy,” that it is utterly impossible that ac- 
tions in the nervous system should ever, under 
any circumstances, stand in the relation of cause 
to psychical actions going on in the mind. A 
wave of molecular motion in the brain cannot 
produce a feeling or a state of consciousness. It 
ean do nothing whatever but set up other waves 
of molecular motion, either in the gray matter of 
ganglia or in the white matter of nerve-fibres. 
Whatever goes in any way into the organism as 
physical force must come out again as physical 
force, and every phase of every transformation 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 333 


that it may undergo in the mean time must be 
rigorously accounted for in terms of physical force, 
or else the law of the conservation of energy 
will not be satisfied. ‘To introduce conscious- 
ness or feeling anywhere in the series, as either 
caused by or causing actions in the brain or 
nerves, is “not to state what is untrue, but is to 
talk nonsense,” as Clifford would say. These con- 
siderations — which must forever shut out scio- 
lists like Biichner from intruding with their self- 
satisfied explanations into the great primordial 
mystery of Nature, the relationship of body and 
soul — would seem to have been clearly appre- 
ciated by Clifford ; and he states the point in his 
psychological language with elegant succinctness. 
‘The word Cause, to\Aaxas Acyouevov and mislead- 
ing as it is, having no legitimate place in science 
or philosophy [Chauncey Wright would have said 
a hearty Amen to that !], may yet be of some use 
in conversation or literature, if it is kept to de- 
note a relation between objective facts, to de- 
scribe certain parts of the phenomenal order. But 
only confusion can arise, if it is used to express 
the relation between certain objective facts in my 
consciousness and the ejective facts which are in- 
ferred as corresponding in some way to them and 
running parallel with them. . . . The distinction 


334 Exeursions of an Evolutionist. 


between eject and object, properly grasped, for. 
bids us to regard the eject, another man’s mind, 
as coming into the world of objects in any way, 
or as standing in the relation of cause or effect to 
any changes in that world. I need hardly add 
that the facts do very strongly lead us to regard 
our bodies as merely complicated examples of 
practically universal physical rules, and their mo- 
tions as determined in the same way as those of 
the sun and the sea. There is no evidence which 
amounts toa prima facie case against the dynami- 
cal uniformity of Nature; and I make no excep- 
tion in favour of that slykick force which fills ex- 
isting lunatic asylums and makes private houses 
into new ones.” 

The doctrine of evolution, as applied by Mr. 
Spencer to the study of psychical phenomena, 
nowhere undertakes to interpret Mind as evolved 
from Matter, but it shows a wonderfully minute 
and instructive parallelism between the modes 
of evolution of the total series of objective facts 
and the total series of ejective facts. Pushing 
the analysis, both of physical and of psychical 
phenomena, to its farthest possible limits with 
the data now at command, Mr. Spencer has 
shown how all the phenomena constituting a con- 
sciousness are compounded of elementary sub- 


A Universe of Mind-Stuff. 335 


conscious feelings or “psychical shocks.’’ Physi- 
cal phenomena, likewise, in an ultimate analysis, 
are resolved into simple pulsations or rhythmical 
movements of ether-atoms; and the question 
arises as to the relation between the elementary 
physical pulsation and the elementary psychical 
shock. Reasoning most ingeniously from the 
essential continuity in Nature which the doctrine 
of evolution supposes, and recognizing the im- 
possibility of deriving the psychical element from 
the physical, Clifford reaches the conclusion that 
‘‘every motion of matter is simultaneous with 
some ejective fact or event which might be part 
of a consciousness.” This simple ejective fact or 
event may be regarded as a molecule, so to speak, 
of mind-stuff ; and we reach the startling conclu- 
sion that ‘the universe consists entirely of mind- 
stuff. Some of this is woven into the complex 
form of human minds containing imperfect rep- 
resentations of the mind-stuff outside them, and 
of themselves also, as a mirror reflects its own 
image in another mirror ad infinitum. Such an 
imperfect representation is called a material uni- 
verse. It is a picture in a man’s mind of the 
real universe of mind-stuff.”’ 

Clifford recognizes that this doctrine seems to 
have been independently arrived at by many per- 


336 Feeursions of an Hvolutionist. 


sons, and he instances the statements of Wundt 
in his “ Physiologische Psychologie.” The the- 
ory harmonizes well with that which I have en- 
deavoured to elucidate in the chapter on Matter 
and Spirit in my ‘‘ Cosmic Philosophy,” though 
the result was reached by different processes of 
inference in the two cases. With Clifford’s 
further conclusion, that the complex web of hu- 
man consciousness cannot survive the disintegra- 
tion of the organic structure with which we in- 
variably find it associated, I do not agree. It is 
a conclusion not involved in the premises, and is 
one which no scientific philosopher, as such, has 
a right to draw. It necessitates as complete a 
transgression of the bounds of experience as any 
theologian is ever called upon to make. Least of 
all would one expect to see Clifford drawing such 
a conclusion and announcing it with a tinge of 
dogmatic emphasis withal, after reading his admi- 
rable remarks on Lobatchevski, where he shows 
how strictly the modern thinker must limit his 
generalizations to the region covered by experi- 
ence. Were it not for a trifle too much of what 
Mr. Spencer would call the “anti - theological 
bias,” Clifford’s way of reasoning about the uni- 
verse would have left little to be desired. 


November, 1879. 


XTV. 
IN MEMORIAM: CHARLES DARWIN. 


To-pDAY, while all that was mortal of Charles 
Darwin is borne to its last resting-place in West- 
minster Abbey, by the side of Sir Isaac Newton, 
it seems a fitting occasion to utter a few words 
of tribute to the memory of the beautiful and 
glorious life that has just passed away from us. 
Though Mr. Darwin had more than completed 
his threescore and ten years, and though his life 
had been rich in achievement and crowned with 
success such as is but seldom vouchsafed to man, 
yet the news of his death has none the less im- 
pressed us with a sense of sudden and premature 
bereavement. For on the one hand the time 
would never have come when those of us who had 
learned the inestimable worth of such a teacher 
and friend could have felt ready to part with 
him; and on the other hand Mr. Darwin was one 
whom the gods, for love of him, had endowed 
with perpetual youth, so that his death could 


never seem otherwise than premature. As Mr. 
92 


$38 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Galton has well said, the period of physical youth 
—say from the fifteenth to the twenty-second 
year — is, with most men, the only available 
period for acquiring the intellectual habits and 
amassing the stores of knowledge that are to form 
their equipment for the work of a life-time; but 
in the case of men of the highest order this period 
is simply a period of seven years, neither more 
nor less valuable than any other seven years. 
There is, now and then, a mind — perhaps one 
in four or five millions — which in early youth 
thinks the thoughts of mature manhood, and 
which in old age retains the flexibility, the re- 
ceptiveness, the keen appetite for new impres- 
sions, that are characteristic of the fresh season of 
youth. Such a mind as this was Mr. Darwin’s. 
To the last he was eager for new facts and sug- 
gestions, to the last he held his judgments in 
readiness for revision; and to this unfailing fresh- 
ness of spirit was joined a sagacity which, natu- 
rally great, had been refined and strengthened by 
half a century most fruitful in experiences, till 
it had come to be almost superhuman. When 
we remember how Alexander von Humboldt 
began at the age of seventy-five to write his 
** Kosmos,” and how he lived to turn off in his 
ninetieth year the filth bulky volume of that pro- 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 339 


digiously learned book, — when we remember 
this, and consider the great scientific value of the 
monographs which Mr. Darwin has lately been 
publishing almost every year, we must feel that 
it is in a measure right to speak of his death as 
premature. 

After all, however, no one can fail to recognize 
in the career of Mr. Darwin the interest that be- 
longs to a complete and well-rounded tale. When 
the extent of his work is properly estimated, it is 
not too much to say that among all the great 
leaders of human thought that have ever lived 
there are not half a dozen who have achieved so 
much as he. In an age that has been richer than 
any preceding age in great scientific names, his 
name is indisputably the foremost. He has al- 
ready found his place in the history of science 
by the side of Aristotle, Descartes, and Newton. 
And among thinkers of the first order of original- 
ity, he has been peculiarly fortunate in having 
lived to see all the fresh and powerful minds of a 
new generation adopting his fundamental con- 
ceptions, and pursuing their inquiries along the 
path which he was the first to break. 

When Mr. Darwin was born, in 1809, the name 
which he inherited was already a famous name. 
Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the friend of Priestley and 


340 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Watt, and author of the “ Botanic Garden,” was 
deservedly ranked among the most ingenious and 
original thinkers of the eighteenth century in 
England. His brother, Robert Waring Darwin, 
was the author of a work on botany which for 
many years enjoyed high repute. Of the sons of 
Erasmus, one, Sir Francis Darwin, was noted as 
a keen observer of animals; another, Charles, 
who died at the age of twenty-one from a dissec- 
tion wound, had already written a medical essay 
of such importance as to give his name a place in 
biographical dictionaries; a third, Robert War- 
ing, who achieved great distinction as a physi- 
cian, married a daughter of the celebrated Josiah 
Wedgewood, and became the father of the im- 
mortal discoverer who has just been taken away 
from. us. While citing these remarkable in- 
stances of inherited ability, it may be of interest 
to mention also that among the cousins of Mr. 
Darwin who have become more or less distin- 
guished in our own time are Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood, the philologist, the late Sir Henry 
Holland, and Mr. Francis Galton, whose excel- 
lent treatise on “ Hereditary Genius ” is known to 
every one. Nor can it be irrelevant to add that 
one of Mr. Darwin’s sons has already, through 
his study of the tides, achieved some remarkable 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 341 


results, which seem likely to give him a high 
place among the astronomers of the present day. 
There is one thing which a man of original 
scientific or philosophical genius in a rightly or- 
dered world should never be called upon to do. 
He should never be called upon to “ earn a liv- 
ing ;” for that is a wretched waste of energy, in 
which the highest intellectual power is sure to 
suffer serious detriment, andruns the risk of be- 
ing frittered away into hopeless ruin. Like his 
great predecessor and ally, Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. 
Darwin was so favoured by fortune as to be free 
from this odious necessity. He was able to devote 
his whole life with a single mind to the pursuit of 
scientific truth, and to ministering in the most 
exalted way to the welfare of his fellow-creatures. 
After taking his Master’s degree at Cambridge in 
1831, at the age of twenty-two, an opportunity 
was offered Mr. Darwin for studying natural his- 
tory on a grand scale. The Beagles a ten-gun 
brig under the command of Captain Fitzroy, was 
then about to start on a long voyage, “to com- 
plete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del 
Fuego, . . . to survey the shores of Chili, Peru, 
and of some islands in the Pacific, and to carry a 
chain of chronometrical measurements round the 
world.” As Captain Fitzroy had expressed a 


342 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


wish to have a naturalist accompany the expedi- 
tion, Mr. Darwin volunteered his services, which 
the Lords of the Admiralty readily accepted, — 
a fact which in itself is sufficient evidence of the 
reputation for scientific attainments which Mr. 
Darwin had already gained at that youthful age. 
This memorable voyage, which lasted five years, 
was very fruitful in results. The general his- 
tory of the voyage, with an account of such obser- 
vations in natural history as seemed likely to in- 
terest the ordinary reader, is to be found in the 
*¢ Journal of Researches ”’ published by Mr. Dar- 
win some three years after his return to England. 
This book immediately acquired a great popular- 
ity, which it has retained to this day, having 
gone through at least thirteen editions; and it is 
certainly one of the most fascinating books of 
travel that was ever written. ‘“ The author,” 
said the “ Quarterly Review,” in December, 1839, 
“is a first-rate landscape painter with the pen, 
and the dreariest solitudes are made to teem with 
interest.” An abridgment of this charming jour- 
nal, lately published with illustrations, under the 
title «* What Mr. Darwin saw in his Voyage round 
the World,” has become a favourite book for boys 
and girls. 

The scientific results of Mr. Darwin’s voyage 


* 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 343 


in the Beagle were so voluminous that it required 
several years and the assistance of many able 
hands to record them all. Owen, Hooker, Water- 
house, Berkeley, Bell, and other eminent nat- 
uralists took part in the publication of these re- 
sults, which formed a very important contribution 
to the zodlogy and botany, and to the paleontol- 
ogy, of the countries visited in the course of the 
voyage. To this great series of volumes, which ap- 
peared between 1840 and 1846, Mr. Darwin con- 
tributed three from his own hand, — the work on 
“ Volcanic Islands,” the “* Geological Observations 
on South America,” and the famous essay on 
‘Coral Reefs.” In this latter work Mr. Darwin 
proved that through gradual submergence fring- 
ing-reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and 
these again into atolls or lagoon-islands; and thus 
he not only for the first time rendered comprehen- 
sible the work of coral-building, but threw a new 
and wonderful light upon the movements of ele- 
vation and of subsidence in all parts of the globe. 
By thus bringing the work of the corals into its 
direct relationship with volcanic phenomena, Mr. 
Darwin succeeded in presenting “a grand and 
harmonious picture of the movements which the 
crust of the earth has undergone within a late 
period ;” and the result was undoubtedly one of 


344 Excursions of an EHvolutionist. 


the most brilliant contributions to geology that 
has been made since the first publication of the 
great work of Sir Charles Lyell. In 1851-53 Mr. 
Darwin published a “ Monograph of the Cirri- 
pedia,”’ in two volumes octavo, and accompanied 
this, about the same time, with monographs of the 
various fossil genera of cirripeds (or barnacle fam- 
ily) in Great Britain. In recognition of his solid 
and brilliant achievements, Mr. Darwin in 1853 
received the royal medal from the Royal Society, 
and in 1859 the Wollaston medal from the Geo- 
logical Society. By this time his name had come 
to be known in all parts of the civilized world, 
and he was already ranked among the foremost 
living naturalists, so that when, in the year 1859, 
the * Origin of Species” was published, it at once 
attracted universal attention by reason of the 
eminence of its author. I well remember how, 
in the first few weeks after the book was pub- 
lished, every one at all instructed in the biologi- 
cal sciences was eager to ascertain the views of so 
distinguished a naturalist with regard to a ques- 
tion which for several years had agitated the 
scientific world. 

Like the great works which had preceded it, 
the “Origin of Species’? must be regarded as one 
of the results of the ever memorable voyage of 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 345 


the Beagle. In the course of this voyage Mr. Dar- 
win visited the Galapagos Islands, and was struck 
by the peculiar relations which the floras and fau- 
nas of this archipelago sustained to one another, 
and to the flora and fauna of the nearest mainland 
of Ecuador, distant some five hundred miles. 
These islands are purely volcanic in formation, 
and have never at any time been joined to the 
South American continent. They possess no ba- 
trachians and no mammals, save a mouse, which 
was no doubt introduced by some ship. The only 
insects are coleoptera, which possess peculiar fa- 
cilities for transportation across salt water upon 
floating logs or branches; and along with these 
are two or three species of land shells. There are 
also two snakes, one land tortoise, and four kinds 
of lizard; and in striking contrast with all this 
general extreme paucity of animal forms, there 
are at least fifty-five species of birds. Now these 
insects, mollusks, reptiles, and birds are like the 
insects, mollusks, reptiles, and birds of the west- 
ern coast of South America, and not like the cor- 
responding animals in other parts of the world. 
But this is not all; for the Galapagos animals, 
while very like the animals of Ecuador, Peru, and 
Chili, are not quite like them. While the fami- 
lies are identical, the differences are always at 


346 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


least specific, sometimes generic, in value. Pre- 
cisely the same sort of relationship is sustained by 
the Galapagos flora toward the flora of the main- 
land. And, to crown all, the differences between 
forms that are generic when the archipelago as a 
whole is compared with the continent sink into 
specific differences when the several islands of the 
archipelago are compared with one another. Such 
a group of facts as these leads irresistibly to the 
conclusion that the specific forms of plants and 
animals have been originated, not by “ special 
creations,” but by “descent with modifications.” 
If species have been separately created, there is 
of course no reason why the population of such an 
archipelago should be strictly limited to such or- 
ganisms as can fly or get floated across the water ; 
nor is there any reason why these organisms should 
resemble those of the nearest mainland rather 
than those of any other tropical mainland, such as 
Africa or India. One might indeed object that 
organisms have been created in such wise as most 
completely to harmonize with the physical condi- 
tions by which they are surrounded, and that it is 
to be presumed that the physical conditions of the 
Galapagos Islands are more like those of Ecuador 
and Peru than ther are like those of any other 
countries ; so that in this way the general simi 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 347 


larity between the floras and faunas may be ac- 
counted for. But such an explanation is very 
weak, for it rests upon an assumption which has 
been proved to be untrue. It is not always true 
that the organisms in any given part of the world 
are such as harmonize best with the physical con- 
ditions by which they are surrounded. It is approx- 
imately true only where the competition among 
organisms is practically unlimited; in protected 
areas it is not at all true. In Australia and New 
Zealand, for example, the plants and animals 
which have been introduced by Europeans are 
exterminating and supplanting the native plants 
and animals quite as rapidly as the Englishman is 
supplanting the native human population of these 
countries. And to state this fact is only to say, 
in other words, that the plants and animals of 
Europe are better adapted to the physical condi- 
tions which prevail in Australia and New Zealand 
than the plants and animals which are indigenous 
there. A comprehensive survey of the distribu- 
tion of life all over the globe confirms this conclu- 
sion, and shows that by no assumption of a special 
act of creation can the peculiar features of the 
Galapagos flora and fauna be explained. The 
only way in which to account for these features is 
to suppose that the archipelago has been peopled 


348 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


by migrations from the nearest mainland. This 
explains why the creatures there are most like the 
creatures of Ecuador and Peru, and it also ex- 
plains why the only indigenous animals to be 
found there are such as could have flown or been 
blown thither, or such as could have been ferried 
thither on floating vegetation. 

But if all this be true —and to-day no compe 
tent naturalist doubts it—a conclusion of vast 
importance immediately follows. If the Galapa- 
gos plants and animals are descended from ances- 
tors that migrated thither from the continent, they 
have been modified during ages of residence in the 
islands, until they have come to differ specifically, 
and in many cases generically, from their collat- 
eral relations on the mainland. And this amounts 
to saying that species are not fixed, but mutable, 
—that every distinct form of plant and animal 
was not originally created with its present attri- 
butes, but that some forms have arisen from the 
modification of ancestral forms. 

In this way, from the study of the inhabitants 
of a single well-defined area, Mr. Darwin was led 
into a series of most grand and startling consid- 
erations relating to the past history of life upon 
our globe. The conclusions thus succinctly stated 
were amply confirmed by a survey of the distri 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 349 


bution of organisms all over the earth, and thus 
was inaugurated the study of zodlogical and _ bo- 
tanical geography, —a study which in half a cen- 
tury has reached such magnificent proportions in 
the great works of Hooker and Wallace, and which 
owes its wonderful progress mainly to the saga- 
cious impulse communicated at the outset by Mr. 
Darwin. It has now become well established that 
in very few cases, if any, have animals and 
plants originated exactly in the places where we 
now find them, but that they are almost always 
the offspring of immigrants; and the study of 
the ancient migrations of the progenitors of liy- 
ing plants and animals has begun to throw a 
flood of light upon the history of the changes 
that have taken place in the physical geography 
of the earth. 

The conception of the origin of species through 
“descent with modifications’ having been thus 
forcibly suggested to Mr. Darwin by the facts of 
geographical distribution, 1t was still further 
strengthened by a study of the geological succes- 
sion of extinct organisms and their relations to 
living organisms in the same areas. Such broad 
facts as the successive appearance of various sloth- 
like and armadillo-like animals in South America, 
or of various marsupials and monotremes in Aus- 


300 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


tralia, forcibly suggest the descent of the later 
forms from the earlier ones that lived in the same 
countries. Of like import is the general fact that 
in the course of geological succession any given 
organism is sure to be intermediate in character 
between those that have preceded and those that 
have followed it. But still more powerfully sug- 
gestive even than this is the fact that, in propor-— 
tion as we go back in geologic time, we find the 
characteristics of plants and animals to be less 
and less distinctly specialized: so that, for ex- 
ample, in the Eocene period, instead of horses 
and tapirs such as now exist we find an animal 
something like a tapir and something like a horse ; 
and instead of leopards and wolves and bears we 
find carnivorous animals, not specialized as of fe- 
line or canine or ursine family, but with some 
points of resemblance to all three, and with some 
points like opossums and wombats into the bar- 
gain. In conformity with this general principle, 
the arrangement of organisms according to their 
succession in geologic time would be like the 
branches and branchlets of a tree, which is the 
typical form of arrangement where the link that 
connects the facts arranged is the link of parent- 
age. 

But just here the facts of geological succession 


In Memorzam: Charles Darwin. 351 | 


are reinforced, with truly overwhelming conclu- 
siveness, by the great facts of classification in the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms. This branching 
tree-like arrangement, which alone correctly rep- 
resents the relationships of organisms in their ge- 
ological succession, is at the same time the only 
possible arrangement by which the likenesses and 
affinities among existing organisms can be repre- 
sented with anything like an approach to correct- 
ness. The facts of paleontology exactly dovetail 
in with those of taxonomy, and serve to elucidate 
and emphasize them. Many eminent naturalists 
before Cuvier attempted to classify all animals in 
a linear series, but Cuvier proved once for all that 
no such arrangement is possible. The only fea- 
sible arrangement is that of groups within groups, 
diverging like the branches and twigs of what we 
aptly term a “family-tree;” and this fact not 
only strongly suggests the theory of ‘descent 
with modifications,” but is indeed utterly incom- 
patible with any other theory. 

Further powerful evidence in favour of the same 
view is furnished by countless familiar facts of 
morphology and embryology. On the theory of 
“‘ descent with modifications,” it is intelligible that 
all the classes and orders of the vertebrate sub- 
kingdom, for example, should be constructed on 


352 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


exactly the same fundamental plan,—that the 
arms of men, the fore-legs of quadrupeds, the 
paddles of cetacea, the wings of birds, and the pec- 
toral fins of fishes should be structurally identical 
with one another. It is intelligible that a horse’s 
hoof should be, as it is, made up of toes that 
have grown together. It is intelligible that every 
mammalian embryo: should begin, as it does, to 
develop as if it were going to become a fish, cir- 
culating its blood through gills and a two-cham- 
bered heart, and then, changing its course, should 
behave as if it were going to become a reptile or 
bird, and only after long delay should assume the 
distinctive characteristics of mammality. It is in- 
telligible that many snakes should possess beneath 
their skin the rudiments of limbs; that sundry 
insects, which never fly, should have wings firmly 
fastened down to their sides; and that the em- 
bryos of many birds, while developing in the egg, 
should grow temporary teeth within their little 
beaks. But it is only on the theory of ‘“ descent 
with modifications’ that such facts, which are in 
no wise exceptional, but common throughout the 
entire animal kingdom, have any meaning what- 
ever. 

Many of these facts had been noticed by em< 
inent naturalists before Mr. Darwin, and their in 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. DDS 


compatibility with any theory of special creations 
had also been observed; but it was Mr. Darwin 
who first marshalled them into one mighty argu- 
ment, of which the cumulative result was that the 
phenomena of the organic world are unintelligible 
from beginning to end save on the theory of “ de- 
scent with modifications.”” Had Mr. Darwin done 
nothing but this, it would have given him a pe- 
culiar right to associate his name with the devel- 
opment theory, it would have established that 
theory on a basis of “convincing probability,” 
and it would have entitled him to a high place in 
the history of scientific thought in the nineteenth 
century. But Mr. Darwin did not stop here. 
Convinced by such considerations as those just 
presented that the specific characters of plants 
and animals are not constant, but variable, he 
sought for some grand all-pervading cause of vari- 
ation in organisms, and his search was crowned 
with success. This was the achievement which 
in his hands raised the development theory from 
the rank of a brilliant philosophical speculation 
into the rank of an irrefragable scientific dis- 
covery. This was the achievement which gave 
to mankind a new implement of research and a 
new insight into the workings of Nature, and it 


was this which justifies us in placing Mr. Dar- 
23 


854 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


win’s name beside those of Newton and Des- 
eartes. 

The method by which Mr. Darwin succeeded 
in discovering the cause of variation in organisms 
was the thoroughly scientific method of advancing 
tentatively from the known to the unknown. 
Are there any instances in which the forms of 
plants and animals have actually been seen to 
vary, and, if there are, what seems to have been 
the principal cause of variation in these instances ? 
The answer is not far to seek. The instances are 
very numerous indeed in which variations — and 
very marked ones, too— have been wrought in the 
characteristics of plants and animals through the 
agency of man. The phenomena of variation 
presented by animals and plants under domesti- 
cation are so numerous and so complex that it 
would require many volumes to describe them. 
Dogs, horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, rabbits, pigeons, 
poultry, silk-moths, cereal and culinary plants, 
fruits and flowers innumerable, have been reared 
and bred by man for many long ages, — some of 
them from time immemorial. These domesti- 
cated organisms man has caused to vary, in one 
direction or another, to suit his natural or arti- 
ficial needs, or even the mere whim of his fancy. 
The variations, moreover, which have thus been 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. DOO 


produced have been neither slight nor unim- 
portant, and have been by no means confined to 
superficial characteristics. Compare the thor- 
ough-bred race-horse with the gigantic London 
dray-horse on the one hand, and the Shetland 
pony on the other; or, among pigeons, contrast 
the pouter with the fan-tail, the barb, the short- 
faced tumbler, or the jacobin, all of which are 
historically known to have descended from one 
and the same ancestral form. The differences ex- 
tend throughout the whole bony framework as 
well as throughout the muscular and nervous 
systems, and exceed in amount the differences by 
which naturalists often adjudge species to be dis- 
tinct. Through what agency has man produced 
such results as these? He has produced them 
simply by taking advantage of a slight tendency 
to variation which exists perpetually in all plants 
and animals, and which exhibits itself in the sim- 
ple fact that nowhere do we ever find any two indi- 
viduals exactly alike. Taking advantage of these 
individual variations, the breeder simply selects 
the individuals which best suit his purpose, and 
breeds them apart by themselves. The qualities 
for which they are selected are propagated and 
enhanced through inheritance and renewed selec- 
tion in each succeeding generation, until by the 


306 Excursions of an Hvolutionist. 


slow accumulation of small differences a new race 
is formed. And thus we have peaches and al- 
monds from a common source, grapes to eat and 
grapes to make wine of, pointer-dogs and mastiffs, 
and so on throughout the list of cultivated plants 
and domesticated animals. 

These facts about variation under domestica- 
tion are for the most part well known, and the 
alleved cause of variation, in selection by man, is 
not an occult cause, but is a phenomenon per- 
fectly familiar to every one. Starting from this 
point, Mr. Darwin made a very elaborate study 
of all that farmers, horticulturists, and breeders 
could impart concerning “artificial selection ;” 
and more especially with regard to pigeons his 
own observations were so extensive and minute 
that, when the “ Origin of Species” was published, 
I recollect reading one silly review, in which we 
were gravely informed that here was a new theory 
of development, —not by a naturalist, but by a 
mere pigeon-fancier, and probably worthy of very 
little consideration ! 

Such being the wonders which man has wrought 
within a comparatively short time through “ arti- 
ficial selection” in the breeding of animals and 
plants, the question next arises whether any selec- 
tive process like this has been going on through 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 857 


countless ages without the intervention of man. 
Can it be that there is a “natural selection ”’ of 
individual variations, whereby new species are 
produced in just the same way that breeders pro- 
duce new races of pigeons? ‘There is such a 
“natural selection’? forever going on as one of 
the inseparable concomitants of organic life; and 
it was just in the detection of this great truth 
that the very kernel of Mr. Darwin’s stupendous 
discovery consisted. It was here that the poetic 
or creative act of genius came into play, just as 
it did in Newton’s discovery, when the fall of the 
moon was likened to the fall of the apple, and 
the tangential force of the moon to the tangential 
force of a stone whirled at the end of a string. 
The case is simple enough, when creative genius 
has once explained it. So great is the destruction 
of organic life that out of hundreds of seeds, or 
spawn, or ova, but one or two ever live to come to 
maturity and reproduce themselves in offspring. 
Such is the result of the universal and unrelent- 
ing competition between organisms for the means 
of subsistence. Any creature that lives to repro- 
duce its kind is selected from out of a thousand 
that perish prematurely, and its selection is evi- 
dence of its better adaptation to the conditions 
amid which it is placed. And so stern and so 


808 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


ubiquitous is the competition that there is no in- 
dividual variation, however slight or apparently 
trivial, that is not lable to be seized upon and 
enhanced if it tend in any way to promote the 
survival of the species. Thus it is natural selec- 
tion that at every moment preserves the stability 
of a species, and keeps it in harmony with its en- 
vironment, by cutting off all individual variations 
that oscillate too far on either side of a prescribed 
mean. ‘The stability of a species depends, there- 
fore, upon the stability of the environment; and 
the only condition under which a species could 
remain unchanged would be, that it should re- 
main forever exposed to the action of changeless 
groups of circumstances. But this has never been 
the case with any species, and never will be. The 
habitable surface of the earth has been perpet- 
ually changing for a hundred million years, and 
the relations between the countless groups of or- 
ganisms that have covered its surface have been 
perpetually changing in endless degrees of com- 
plexity ; and in such a world, under the working 
of natural selection, there can be no such thing as 
** fixity of species.” 

Having arrived at these grand conclusions, it 
became comparatively easy for Mr. Darwin to go 
on and trace the workings of natural selection in 


In Memoriam; Charles Darwin. 309 


many special instances. In these inquiries, upon 
which he brought to bear a knowledge of the de- 
tails of organic life more vast and multifarious 
than has ever been possessed by any other man, 
he occupied nearly a quarter of a century before 
it seemed to him that the time had come for mak- 
ing his discovery known to the world. In 1844, 
he wrote out a brief sketch of the conclusions 
which, as he modestly says, ‘then seemed to me 
probable ;”’ and this sketch he showed to his 
friend Hooker, perhaps also to Lyell. But fifteen 
years more, rich in observation and reflection, 
passed away, and still the world had heard noth- 
ing about the origin of species by means of nat- 
ural selection. How much longer this silence 
might have lasted, had not an unforeseen circum- 
stance come in to break it, one cannot say. But 
no doubt it would have lasted some time longer, 
for Mr. Darwin did not wish to publish his con 
clusions until he had given due attention to every 
fact and every argument which might in any way 
bear upon them; and it is quite evident that 
when he wrote the “Origin of Species” he did not 
realize either the wonderful maturity which his 
argument had attained, or the overwhelming co- 
gency with which he was then actually presenting 
it to the world. It was very characteristic of Mr. 


360 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Darwin — into the fibre of whose mind there en- 
tered not the smallest shred of egotism or of the 
pride of knowledge — to make so many allow- 
ances for the inevitable incompleteness of his 
work, when judged by that standard of ideal per- 
fection which he alone among men was able to 
apply to it, as to have rendered himself incapable 
for the time being of appreciating its real mag- 
nitude. In writing the “ Origin of Species,” he 
regarded the book as merely a preliminary outline 
of his theory, which would serve to prevent his 
being forestalled by any one else in the announce- 
ment of it, and he made frequent allusions to the 
larger and more elaborate treatise in which he 
intended presently to follow up the exposition and 
to reinforce the argument. When I first met Mr. 
Darwin in London, in 18738, he told me that he 
was surprised at the great fame which his book 
instantly won, and at the quickness with which it 
carried conviction to the minds of all the men on 
whose opinions he set the most value. The suc- 
cess of his theory was, indeed, wonderfully rapid 
and complete. To understand him was to agree 
with him, and before ten years more had passed 
by, so many able men had become expounders 
and illustrators of the theory of natural selection 
that —as he told me —it seemed no longer so 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 361 


necessary as it had once seemed for him to write 
the larger and more elaborate treatise. The 
learned work on the “ Variation of Animals and 
Plants under Domestication,” which appeared in 
1868 in two octavo volumes, formed the first in- 
stallment of this long-projected treatise. The 
second part was to have treated of the variation 
of animals and plants through natural selection ; 
and a third part would have dealt at length with 
the phenomena of morphology, of classification, 
and of distribution in space and time. But these 
second and third parts were never published. 

I alluded, just now, to the “ unforeseen circum- 
stance”’ which led Mr. Darwin in 1859 to break 
his long silence, and to write and publish the 
‘Origin of Species.” This circumstance served, 
no less than the extraordinary success of his book, 
to show how ripe the minds of men had become 
for entertaining such views as those which Mr. 
Darwin propounded. In 1858 Mr. Wallace, who 
was then engaged in studying the natural history 
of the Malay Archipelago, sent to Mr. Darwin 
(as to the man most likely to understand him) a 
paper, in which he sketched the outlines of a the- 
ory identical with that upon which Mr. Darwin 
had so long been at work. The same sequence 
of observed facts and inferences that had led Mr. 


362 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Darwin to the discovery of natural selection and 
its consequences had led Mr. Wallace to the very 
threshold of the same discovery; but in Mr. Wal- 
lace’s mind the theory had by no means been 
wrought out to the seme degree of completeness 
to which it had been wrought in the mind of Mr. 
Darwin. In the preface to his charming book on 
“ Natural Selection,” Mr. Wallace, with rare mod- 
esty and candour, acknowledges that, whatever 
value his speculations may have had, they have 
been utterly surpassed in richness and cogency 
of proof by those of Mr. Darwin. This is no 
doubt true, and Mr. Wallace has done such good 
work in further illustration of the theory that he 
can well affcrd to rest content with the second 
place in the first announcement of it. 

The coincidence, however, between Mr. Wal- 
lace’s conclusions and those of Mr. Darwin was 
very remarkable. But, after all, coincidences of 
this sort have not been uncommon in the history 
of scientific inquiry. Nor is it at all surprising 
that they should occur now and then, when we 
remember that a great and pregnant discovery 
must always be concerned with some question 
which many of the foremost minds in the world 
are busy in thinking about. It was so with the 
discovery of the differential calculus, and agvin 


Oo? 


in Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 36 


with the discovery of the planet Neptune. It was 
so with the interpretation of the Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics, and with the establishment of the un- 
dulatory theory of light. It was so, to a consid- 
erable extent, with the introduction of the new 
chemistry, with the discovery of the mechanical 
equivalent of heat, and the whole doctrine of the 
correlation of forces. It was so with the invention 
of the electric telegraph and with the discovery 
of spectrum analysis. And it is not at all strange 
that it should have been so with the doctrine of 
the origin of species through natural selection. 
The belief that all species have originated through 
derivation from other species, and not through 
special creation, had been held by part of the 
scientific world ever since the time of Mr. Dar- 
win’s grandfather, who was one of its earliest and 
most eminent advocates. Even those naturalists 
who did not hold this belief can hardly be said to 
have held any antagonistic belief, inasmuch as the 
so-called ** doctrine of special creations”’ is not a 
positive doctrine at all, but a mere confession of 
ignorance, and was so regarded by scientific nat- 
uralists, such as Owen, for example, before 1859. 
The truth is that before the publication of the 
“ Origin of Species” there was no opinion what- 
ever current respecting the subject that deserved 


364 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


to be called a scientific hypothesis. That the 
more complex forms of life must have come into 
existence through some process of development 
from simpler forms was no doubt the only sensi- 
ble and rational view to take of the subject; but 
in a vague and general opinion of this sort there 
is nothing that is properly scientific. A scientific 
hypothesis must connect the phenomena with 
which it deals by alleging a “true cause;” and 
before 1859 no one had suggested a “ true cause ” 
for the origination of new species, although the 
problem was one over which every philosophical 
naturalist had puzzled since the beginning of the 
century. This explains why Mr. Darwin’s suc- 
cess was so rapid and complete, and it also ex- 
plains why he came so near being anticipated. 
His long delay, however, in bringing forward his 
theory had one good result. The work was so 
thoroughly done that, although Darwinism has 
now for twenty-three years been one of the chief 
subjects of popular discussion in all the civilized 
countries of the world, no one as yet seems to 
have discovered any argument against the theory 
of natural selection which Mr. Darwin had not 
himself already foreseen and considered in the 
first edition of the ‘* Origin of Species.” 

After an interval of twelve years Mr. Darwin 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 365 


followed up the first announcement of his general 
theory with his treatise on the ‘* Descent of Man,” 
a book which deals with a subject in one respect 
even more difficult than the origin of species. In 
his earlier book Mr. Darwin, with masterly skill, 
brought together huge masses of facts, and showed 
their bearings upon a few general propositions re- 
lating to the whole organic world. In the “ De- 
scent of Man” the problem was different. Prop- 
ositions of great generality, such as had been 
established in the “ Origin of Species,” served 
here as fundamental principles; but they had to 
be supplemented by a consideration of the enor- 
mously complex and heterogeneous circumstances 
which attended the origination of a particular 
genus. It is enough to say that in the treatment 
of this arduous problem Mr. Darwin showed no 
less acuteness and grasp than had been displayed 
in his earlier work. 

In connection with this problem of thé origin of 
the human race, Mr. Darwin announced the results 
of his extensive researches into the subject of sex- 
ual selection in the animal kingdom. Some time 
before this, in his treatise on the ‘ Fertilization 
of Orchids,” published in 1862, he had called at- 
tention to the interdependence between the insect 
world and the world of flowers. Further research 


366 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


in this direction has made it clear that the beau- 
tiful colours and sweet odours of flowers are due to 
selection on the part of insects. The bright colours 
and delicious perfumes attract insects, who come 
to sip the nectar, and carry away on their backs 
the pollen with which to fertilize the next plant 
they visit. Thus the fairest and sweetest flowers 
are continually selected to perpetuate their race, 
and thus have insects and flowering plants been 
developed in close correlation with one another. 

It was Mr. Darwin’s good fortune to live long 
enough to see his theory not only adopted by all 
competent naturalists, but demonstrated by crucial 
evidence in the case of at least one genus. The 
researches of Professor Marsh into the paleon- 
tology of the horse have established beyond ques- 
tion the descent of the genus eguus from a five- 
toed mammal not larger than a pig, and somewhat 
resembling a tapir. All the “ missing links” in 
this case have been found; and thus the primitive 
barbaric hypothesis of “special creations”? may 
be said to have disappeared forever from the field 
of natural history. It has taken its place by the 
side of the Ptolemaic astronomy and the dreams 
of the alchemists. 

Mr. Darwin’s latest books belong to a period 
in which, having lived to witness the complete 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 367 


success of his great work, he has employed his 
time in recording the results of his researches on 
many subsidiary points, of no little interest and 
importance. The treatises on the Expression of 
the Emotions in Man and Animals, on the Move- 
ments and Habits of Climbing Plants, on Insec- 
tivorous Plants, on Cross and Self Fertilization, 
on the Different Forms of Flowers, and on the 
Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Ac- 
tion of Worms, should be read as models of sound 
scientific method by every one who cares to learn 
what scientific method is. They may be counted, 
too, among the most entertaining books of science 
that have ever been written ; and the points that 
have been established in them, taken in connec- 
tion with Mr. Darwin’s previous works, make up 
an aggregate of scientific achievement such as has 
rarely been equalled. 

It is fitting that in the great Abbey, where 
rest the ashes of England’s noblest heroes, the 
place of the discoverer of natural selection should 
be near that of Sir Isaac Newton. Since the pub- 
lication of the immortal “ Principia,” no single 
scientific book has so widened the mental horizon 
of mankind as the “ Origin of Species.” Mr. Dar- 
win, like Newton, was a very young man when 
his great discovery suggested itself to him. Like 


368 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 


Newton, he waited many years before publishing 
it to the world. Like Newton, he lived to see it 
become part and parcel of the mental equipment 
of all men of science. The theological objection 
urged against the Newtonian theory by Leibnitz, 
that it substituted the action of natural causes for 
the immediate action of the Deity, was also urged 
against the Darwinian theory by Agassiz; and the 
same objection will doubtless continue to be urged 
against scientific explanations of natural phenom- 
ena so long as there are men who fail to compre- 
hend the profoundly theistic and religious truth 
that the action of natural causes is in itself the 
immediate action of the Deity. It is interesting, 
however, to see that, as theologians are no longer 
frightened by the doctrine of gravitation, so they 
are already beginning to outgrow their dread of 
the doctrine of natural selection. On the Sunday 
following Mr. Darwin’s death, Canon Liddon, at 
St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Canons Barry and Pro- 
thero, at Westminster Abbey, agreed in referring 
to the Darwinian theory as “not necessarily 
hostile to the fundamental truths of religion.” 
The effect of Mr. Darwin’s work has been, how- 
ever, to remodel the theological conceptions of 
the origin and destiny of man which were current 
in former times. In this respect it has wrought 


In Memoriam: Charles Darwin. 369 


a revolution as great as that which Copernicus in- 
augurated and Newton completed, and of very 
much the same kind. Again has man been 
rudely unseated from his imaginary throne in the 
centre of the universe, but only that he may learn 
to see in the universe and in human life a richer 
and deeper meaning than he had before sus- 
pected. Truly, he who unfolds to us the way in 
which God works through the world of phenom- 
ena may well be called the best of religious 
teachers. In the study of the organic world, no | 
less than in the study of the starry heavens, is it 
true that “day unto day uttereth speech, and 
night unto night showeth knowledge.” 
April, 1882. 
24 





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INDEX. 


Axzoricines of America formerly 
thought to be Mongols or ten tribes 
of Israel, 148. 

Acacia, 29. 

Accumulation, effective desire of, 218. 

Adapis, 25. 

Afghanistan, 84. 

Africa, 20; not yet explored geologi- 
cally, 33. 

Agassiz, L., 68, 369. 

Age of the earth, 15. 

Ahriman, 78. 

Ahura-Mazda, 78, 82. 

Akkadian empire, 52. 

Albania, 229. 

Albanian language, 96. 

Albert of Brandenburg, 98. 

Albigenses, 262. 

Ale, Aryan names for, 141. 

Alleghanies, 19. 

Allen, Grant, 186. 

Alligators, 24. 

Almond and peach, 357. 

Alps, 19, 23, 28, 38, 69. 

Altaic languages, 100, 153, 166. 

Alternation of climates in Pleistocene 
Europe, 37-40, 66. 

Amazulus, 294, 298. 

American civilization, 319. 

Americans, average height of, 176. 

Anesthetics, 230. 

Ancestor-worship, 251. 

Anchitherium, 25, 30. 

Anoplotherium, 25, 

Anramainyus, 78, 82. 

Anschar, 261. 

Antarctic continent, 72. — 

Antelope, 25, 29. 

Antiquity of life on the earth, 15. 

Antlers, 30, 35. 

Apennines, 23. 

Apes, 30, 35, 313, 315. 

Aphelion, 58. 

Apples, 51. 

Aquinas, 285. 

Arabian civilization, 189. 


‘Arabian Nights,’ fire-worshippers 
slandered in, 80. 

Arabic words in Persian, 112. 

Arabs, 53. 

Araucarian pine, 11. 

Arctic circle in Eocene and Miocene 
periods, 73. 

Arctic Ocean, 33. 

Aria, a name for Thrace, 91. 

Ariana, 84. 

Arians, 261. 

Ariaramnes, 86. 

Ariarathes, 86. 

Arii, a German tribe, 91. 

Ariobarzanes, 86. 

Ariovistus, 91. 

Arkwright, Sir R., 205, 207. 

Armenia once supposed to be cradle 
of human race, 149. 

Armenian language, 94. 

Armenian mountains, 73. 

Arnold, Matthew, 298. 

Arrows of Cave-men, 46. 

Artistic talent of Cave-men, 46. 

Arya, arare, and ear, 85. 

Aryan, properly a linguistic term, 
how far applicable in an ethnologi- 
cal sense, 101-103 ;, Professor Whit- 
ney’s objection to the name, 91. 

Aryan mother-tongue, reconstruction 
of, 122, 152. 

Aryan names for nearest relatives, 
127 ; house, 128; village and town, 
129; wall, 130; roof and door, 131; 
window, 132; cows, 133; horse, 
136; cat, 139; mouse and fly, 140; 
bee, honey, and ale, 141; sea, 143. 

Aryan numerals, 128. 

Aryana Vaéjo, 78-85. 

Aryans, 53-55, 75, 78-146, 163; com: 
pared with Iroquois, 224. 

Asia, ethnology of, 166. 

Assyrian language, 165. 

Athanasians, 260. 

Atlantic Ocean, 20, 21. 

Atlantic ridge, 23, 28, 34, 41. 


372 


Atlantosaurus, 12. 

Atomic theory, 279. 

Atoms and molecules, 325. 

Attila, 170. 

Augustus, 206. 

Australia, 348. 

Automatic character of often-repeated 
actions, 308-310. 

Auvergne, 34, 38. 

Avara, 53, 92. 

Average, deviations from, 178. 

Avernus, 92. 

Axe, 50. 

Azara, 172. : 


Baszoon, 30. 

Badger, 49. 

Bagehot, W., 186. 

Bakhdhi, 79. 

Baktria, 79, 81. 

Baltic Sea, 33, 33. 

Bamboo, 34. 

Barbarians, conversion of, 261. 

Barbarous languages, 171. 

Barley, 51. 

Barrows of Neolithic age, 50. 

Basks, 52, 99, 105. 

Batrachians, earliest, 11. 

Bavaria, 21. 

Beagle, Voyage of the, 342-346. 

Bears, 26, 35, 37, 39, 49. 

Beaver, 39. 

Bedlam, 228. 

Bee, Aryan names for, 141. 

Beech, 24. 

Belief in things coming out right of 
themselves, 221. 

Belisarius, 206. 

Bell, Sir C., 344. 

Benevolent bigots, 214, 234. 

Berbers, 53. 

Berecynthian mother, 262. 

Berkeleian psychology, 328. 

Berkeley, M., 344. 

Berwick, 129. 

Bignonia, 29. 

Bigotry coexisting with elevation of 
character, 214. 

Biography, how far useful in sociol- 
ogy, 193-196. 

Birds, earliest, 12. 

Bison, 37, 39, 45. 

Black Sea, 33. 

Bleda, 244. 

Blondes, 54, 104. 

Boar, 37, 49. 

Bogomilians, 262. 

Bohemia, 21, 23. 

Bohemian language, 98. 

Bokhara, 100. 

Bollandists, 211. 

Bopp, F., 90. 


Indez. 


Borromeo, C., 214. 

Bowditch, N., 309. 

Brain and mind, 278-281, 332-334. 

Brains of man and ape, 315. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, 149. 

Bread-fruit tree, 24. 

Breton language, 96. 

Brigandage, 229. 

Britain, early ages of, 8, 51. 

British islands formerly joined to 
Gaul and Scandinavia, 23, 28, 34, 
41, 49. 

Bronze age, 54. 

Brunettes, 53, 104. 

Biichner, L., 271, 277, 283, 334. 

Buckle, H. T., 188, 213-217, 244, 254. 

Bull, Aryan names for, 134. 

Bull’s-eye window, 132. 

Bunsen, C. C. J., 80. 

Burning of Protestants by Mary Tue 
dor, 255 


Caballus, the runner, 138. 

Cabul, 84. 

Cactus, 24. 

Cesar, J., 199, 201. 

California, antiquity of man in, 36, 40, 
76, 148. 

Calvin, 214, 299. 

Cambrian period, 11, 69. 

Camel, 26. 

Camphor tree, 29. 

Causes, 50, 204. 

Canoes, 214. 

Carboniferous period, 11, 22. 

Carlyle, T., 191, 202, 301. 

Carnivora, 24, 351; reached their 
highest point in Miocene age, 30. 

Carpathians, 23. 

Carthagenian fleets destroyed in first 
Punic war, 207. 

Caspian Sea, 33. 

Cat, 26; Aryan names for, 139; 
Greeks and Romans had none do- 
mesticated, 140. 

Catholic Church in the future, 288. 

sree 23, 73, 166; languages of, 

00. 


Cause, 334. 

Causes of glaciation, 57-76. 

Cave-bear, 39, 46, 49. 

Cave-men, 42-49, 75; compared with 
Eskimos, 47. 

Cave-lion, 46, 49. 

Celebes, 173. 

Cervantes, 245. 

Chalk, 22. 

Chamois, 37. 

Chert, 43. 

Chestnut trees, 24. 

Chinese race and speech, 168. 

Christianity, persecuted by good em- 


Index. 


perors, 214; its origin, 258; per- 
manent and transient features of, 
259; partly paganized through 
struggle with barbarism, 262 ; puri- 
fied by Luther, 265, 288-293. 

Christmas, 262. 

Church militant, 260. 

Cinnamon tree, 29, 34. 

Cirripeds, 345. 

Civet, 29. 

Clan stage of social organization, 239, 
248. 

Clarendon, 130. 

Classification of animals, 352. 

Clifford, W. K., 321-337. 

Climate of Eocene period, 24; of Mio- 
cene, 29 ; of Pliocene, 34; of Pleistc- 
cene, 37-40, 57-76 ; of England, 64. 

Clothes of Cave-men, 45 ; of Neolithic 
men, 50. 

Club-mosses, 11, 22. 

Cockney misuse of h, 115. 

Code of honour, 229. 

Codfish, mental life of, 309. 

Coenopithecus, 25. 

Coldest weather on the earth in east- 
ern Siberia, 72. 

Colenso, J. W., 270. 

Colours of flowers, 367. 

Columbus, 23, 206. 

Comfort, growth of the taste for, 231. 

Commodus, 214. 

Comparative method, 88. 

Competition between organisms, 358. 

Complexion of European races, why 
various, 53-55, 104-106. 

Comte, A. , 190, 271, 274, 289. 

Conifers, gigantic, in Miocene age, 29. 

Connecticut Valley, footprints in, 12. 

Constantine the Great, 8 

Continents and oceans, 20. 

Contract and status, 257. 

Cook, Captain, 173. 

Coral reefs, 344. 

Corporate responsibility, notion of, 
239-242, 248, 286, 318; its origin in 
the military necessities of primitive 
society, 252 ; causes of its decline, 
256-258. 

Correlation of forces, 280, 364. 

Coulanges, F., 194. 

Cow, Aryan names for, 133, 

Cow and calf, 316. 

Cows as money, 134. 

Crane, 29. 

Creation of man, 306-320. 

Credit, living on, 220. 

Credo quia impossibile, 260. 

Cretaceous period, 14, 22, 23. 

Croatian language, 98. 

Crocodile, 24. 

Croll, J., 17, 20, 57, 76. 








373 


Cruel punishments forbidden in Con- 
stitution of the United States, 228. 
Cruelty connected with primitive war- 
fare, 223-225; diminished by in- 
dustrialism, 225-231 ; its relation te 
fear, 252. 

Crusades, 263. 

Crustaceans in Cambrian epoch, 11. 

Cuneiform inscriptions, 84. 

Cuvier, G., 25, 88, 352. 

Cycads, 29. 

Cypress, 24. 


Daaccers of Cave-men, 46. 

Daévas, 78. 

Dante, 215, 293. 

Danube in Miocene period, 28; mean- 
ing of the name, 95. 

Darius Hystaspes, 80, 84. 

Darwin, Charles, 17, 147, 175, 177, 
194, 338-370. 

Darwin, Erasmus, 340, 364. 

Darwin family, 341. 

Dasyus, 84. 

Date of glacial period, 57-76. 

Davila, G. G., 245. 

Dawkins, W. B., 27, 30, 35, 42, 43, 48. 

Deciduous trees, 14, 23. 

Deer, 25, 29, 35, 37, 39, 43 

Dehra Dhun, 130. 

Deinotherium, 30. 

Dentreath, Dolly, last speaker of the 
Cornish language, 96. 

Denudation, rate of, 19. 

Descartes, 282. 

Devonian period, 11. 

Differential calculus, 363. 

Distaff, 50. 

nse eee of plants and animals, 


Dnieper, 95. 

Dog, 26, 50, 356. 

Domestic animals, 50, 51, 355. 
Domineer, disposition to, 233-236. 
Dominic, Saint, 211, 214. 

Don, Keltic name for water, 95. 
Dorians, 54. 

Drake, Sir F., 93. 

Dravidian languages, 153, 165. 
Drawing of Cave-men, 46, 
Dresden, 38. 

Dryopithecus, 30-32. 

Duelling, 229. 

Dumbarton, 130. 

Dundee, 130. 

Dunkeld, 130. 

Duration of geologic epochs, 14, 


EAGLE, 29. 

Earth’s crust, oscillations of, 20, 
Earth’s orbit, ellipticity of, 58, 
Easter, 262. 


374 


Educability of lower animals, 311-314. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 265. 

Effective desire of accumulation, 218. 
Egypt, 51. 

Egyptian hieroglyphics, 364. 
, Bject and object, 328-336. 
Elagabalus, 214. 

Elephant, 34, 37, 39, 43, 49. 

Eliot, George, 221. 

Elk, 39, 43, 49. 

Elm, 24, 29. 

Embryology, 253. 

English Channel, 49. 

English conquest of India, 87. 
English language, future of, 93, 160. 
Engraving of Cave-men, 46. 

Eocene period, 16, 23-27, 36, 69, 351. 
Eozoon, 10. 

Equinoxes, precession of, 59. 
Ericsson, J., 204. 

Erin, 91. 

Error, Laplace’s law of, 326. 
Eskimos and Cave-men, 47. 
Esthonian language, 100. 

Ethelred, 86. 

Ethelwolf, 86. 

Ethics and evolution, 303. 
Etruskans, 53, 99. 

Etymology, former unscientific char- 

acter of, 110. 
Euphrates, 52. 
Europe, succession of races in, 55, 
104. 

Euskarian language, 99. 

Evarts, W. M., 294. 

Exclusive salvation, 215. 

Executions, private, 230. 
Externality, 332. 

Extravagance, 220. 


ane of the Sheep and the Horses, 
124, 


Family the unit of primitive society, 
238 ; origin of, 249, 316. 

Family tree, 352. 

Fan-palms, 24, 29. 

Faroe Islands, 41. 

Fear connected with cruelty, 252. 

Feather and pen, 118. 

Fee and pecus, 135. 

Ferns, 22. 

Ferrier, J. F., 331. 

Fick, A., 126. 

Figs, 29. 

Finality, craving for, 292. 

Finland, 21, 38. 

Finnish ‘language, 100, 166. 

Finno-Tataric race, 166. 

Fire, how obtained by Cave-men, 45. 

Fire-worshippers, 80. 

Fish, earliest, 11. 

Fitzroy, Captain, 342. 


Index. 


Flamingo, 29. 

Flax, 51. 

Flint flakes of river-drift, 43. 

Flints, chipped, in Miocene age, 31; 
in Pleistocene age in valley of 
Thames, 40. 

Flowers and insects, 366. 

Fly, Aryan names for, 141. 

Fly-catcher, 310. 

Folkmotes, 190. 

paid in Connecticut sandstone, 


Forces, correlation of, 280, 364. 

Forth, river, 41. 

Fox, BT. 45, 49; cannot climb trees, 
237, 314. 

Fox-hunting, 229. 

France, 35, 37, 45; her rivalry with 
England, 319. 

Freeman, E. A., 8,144, 194, 201, 229. 

French character injured by persecu- 
tion, 263. 

French language, 97. 

Frenchmen, race-composition of, 102. 

Frobisher, Martin, 93 

Froude, J. A., 201. 

Fulton, 204. 

Future life, 291, 337. 


GAEL, 54. 

Gaelic language, 96. 

Galapagos Islands, 346. 

Galton, F.. on physical youth, 339, 

Gases, liquids, and solids, 326. 

Gaudry on Miocene man, 31. 

Gaul, 28. 51. 

Gauls, 95. 

Geese, 29. 

Geikie, A., 20, 33. 

Geikie, J., 20, 37, 41, 67. 

Genesis, book of, 149. 

Geniuses, 175. 

Geologic epochs, 9, 13. 

Geology as a historical science, 197, 

George IV., 9 

German language, 98. 

German Ocean, 21, 28, 34, 38, 41, 49. 

Getz, 97. 

Gibraltar, 39. 

Glacial epoch, 38-40, 48, 56-76. 

Glaciation in early geologic periods, 
69. 

Gloves of Cave-men, 46. 

Glutton, 37. * 

Goat, 50. 

Godfrey de Bouillon, 206. 

Gorilla dreaded by lower animals, 314. 

Gothic language, 98. 

Goths, 97. 

Gracchus, C., 193. 

Grasmere, 143. 

Great men, 175-210. 


Index. 


Greek and Latin, 89, 96. 
Greenland, 23, 24, 29, 41, 72, 74. 
Gregariousness, 331. 
Gregory VII., 188. 
Grief and tears, 279. 
Grimm/’s law, 115. 
Grinnell Land, 72. 
Grote, G., 270. 

Gulf stream, 63-65. 
Gum-tree, 24. 
Gutenberg, 206. 


Hache, 43. 

Hamburg and Timbuctoo, 187. 

Hapta Hendu, 82. 

Hare, 49. 

Have, conjugated, 113. 

Heat, carried by Gulf Stream, 64; 
mechanical equivalent of, 364. 

Hebrew, attempts to derive Aryan 
languages from it, 89, 110, 150. 

Hecla, 28. 

Hedgehog, 29. 

Hell-fire, doctrine of, 226-228. 

Helmholtz, 177. 

Heresiarchs, no longer found anong 
eminent men, 269. 

Heresy, 292. 

Hermes, mutilation of his wayside 
statues at Athens, 240. 

Herodotos, 84, 97. 

Hero-worship, 175-210. 

Heroes, prehistoric, 205. 

Heron, 29. 

Hibernia, 92. 

Himalayas, 39. 

Hipparion, 30, 35. 

Hippotamus, 34, 37, 66. 

Holland, Spanish atrocities in, 225. 

Holland, Sir H., 341. 

Honey, Aryan names for, 141. 

Hooker, Sir J., 344, 350, 360. 

Horns, 30, 35. 

Horse, 25, 35, 37, 50, 351, 356, 367 ; 
Aryan names for, 136. 

Horse-tails, 11. 

House, Aryan names for, 128. 

Houses of Neolithic age, 50. 

Humane feelings favoured by industri- 
alism, 209, 228-231. 

Humber, 41. 

Humboldt, A., 339. 

Hungarian language, 100, 166. 

Huns, 98. 

Hunter, William, burning of, 226. 

Huss, John, name of, 116. 

Hussites, 262. 

Hutton, 115. 

Huxley, T. H., 22, 106. 

Hyena, 26, 35, 37, 43, 49. 

Hygiene, 322. 


875 


TAPYGIAN language, 99. 

Iberians, 53, 75, 99, 105. 

Ibex, 37. 

Icebergs in Pliocene age, 34. 

Iceland, 23, 24, 41. 

Iguanodon, 12. 

Imagination, its effect upon conduct, 
219 

Improvidence of savages, 218. 

India, what we are learning from it, 
87, 109; non-Aryan tribes in, 100. 

Indian Ocean, 20, 33, 75. 

Indic class of languages, 94. 

Individual rights ignored in early so- 
ciety, 238. 

Indo-European, 90. 

Indo-Germanic, 91. 

Indo-Persians, 94. 

Indus, 82. 

Industrial civilization, 202-210. 

Infallibility, assumption of, 235-238. 

Infancy of apes, 313. 

Infancy of man, its meaning, 247, 306. 
320. 

Infanticide, 250. 

Infidelity, 292. 

Ingersoll, R., 241. 

Inquisition, 211, 225, 264. 

Inscriptions of Darius, 84. 

Insectivora, 26. 

Insects, earliest, 11; relations to flow» 
ers, 366. 

Insurance against fire, 218. 

Tonians, 54. 

Tranic class of languages, 94. 

Ireland, 92. 

Trish Channel, 49. 

Trish elk, 49. 

Trish, name of, 91. 

Troquois, 224. 

Isabella of Castile, 214, 

Italian language, 97. 

Italy, 28, 34, 35. 

Iver, 53, 91. 

Ivernia, 92. 

Ivy, 29. 


James, W., 175-202. 
Japanese language, 168. 
Jinghis Khan, 166, 170. 
Jones, Sir W., 90. 

Julian the Apostate, 214. 
Jurassic period, 12, 22, 312. 


Kettic languages, 91, 95, 96. 
Kelts, 53, 54, 95, 102. 
Khiva, 100. 

Kjarda Dhun, 130. 

Knight, C., 7. 

Kurdish language, 94. 
Kymry, 54. 


376 


LAcORDAIRE, 211. 

Lafuente, 245. 

Lake-villages of Switzerland, 51. 

La Mettrie, 277, 283. : 

Lancers, 327. 

Language not a sure index of race, 
101; of savages, changes quickly, 
172. 

Laplace, 309, 326. 

Lappish language, 100. 

Latin language, 89, 96 ; spread of, over 
western Europe, 155. 

“ Latin race,’’ 101. 

Latin tribes, 54. 

Laurels, 29. 

Laurentian period, 10, 20. 

Leibnitz, 369. 

Lemurs, 25. 

Leopard, 37, 39, 43. 

Lessing, G. E., on relative truth of 
opinions, 212, 

Lettish language, 98. 

Leverrier, 59. 

Leyden, 130. 

Ligurians, 53. 

Lindens, 29. 

Linear classification of animals im- 
practicable, 352. 

ee 37, 39; sabre-toothed, 30, 35, 


Liquids, gases, and solids, 327. 

Lithuanian language, 98. 

Lobatchevsky, 337. 

Lollards, 264. 

London, 130. 

Loom, 50. 

Louer, 117. 

Lowest organisms especially perisha- 
ble, 11 

Lugdunum, 130. 

Luther, M., 242, 264, 267. 

Lyell, Sir G., 342, 345, 360. 

Lynx, 35. 

Lyons, 34, 130. 

Lysander, 193. 


Macau.ay, T. B., 194. 

Machairodus, 30, ” 35, 39. 

Madrid, 245. 

Magdeburg, 225. 

Magian religion, 80. 

Magnolia, 29, 34. 

Maine, Sir H. S., 144, 147, 194, 238. 

Malta, 39. 

Mammals, earliest, 12; in Eocene, 24- 
20 ein Miocene, 20s in Pliocene, 
34; in Pleistocene, 37. 

Mammoth, 45, 49. 

Man, not found in Eocene, 27; doubt- 
ful in Miocene, 30-33 ; found in Pli- 
ocene in Portugal and California, 
36; in river-drift, 39-44; in caves, 





Index. 


42-48 ; significance of his great an- 
tiquity, 76 ; origin of, 306-320, 366. 

Manatee, 31. 

Mandshus, 167. 

Maple, 24, 29, 34. 

Marcus Antoninus, 214. 

Margiana, 81. 

Marmot, 40. 

Marsh, O. C., 12, 368. 

Marsupials, 14, 24. 

Mary Tudor, 254. 

Mastodon, 30, 35. 

Materialism, 272-283, 332-336. 

Maurer, 194. 

Mead, 141. 

Meat, how cooked by Cave-men, 45. 

Mecca, competition of bards at, 162. 

Medes, 84 

‘¢ Mediterranean Sea’’ of Cretaceous 
period, 22. 

Mental life of warm-blooded animals, 
312. 

Mery, 81. 

Mesopithecus, 31. 

Midget, 141. 

Mildness of modern manners, 209. 

Military discipline of primitive soci- 
ety, 251. 

Mill, J. S., 192, 235. 

Millet, 51. 

Million, how to frame a conception 
OL 

Mind-stuff, 336. 

Minokhired, 84. 

Miocene period, 24, 27-33, 36, 69. 

Mississippi valley, drainage of, 18. 

Missouri Compromise, 8. 

Mole, 29. 

Molecules and atoms, 325. 

Mollusks in Cambrian period, 11; in 
Eocene, 24. 

Mommsen, T., 201. 

Mongols, 166, 263. 

Monkeys, infancy of, 313; teachable- 
ness of, 314. 

Monsoons, 74. 

Moors, 53. 

Moral progress, 214-222. 

Morals and evolution, 303. 

Moriscoes expelled from Spain, 243- 
246, 254. 

Morphology, 353. 

Mortar and pestle, 50. 

Mortillet on Miocene man, 32. 

Moscow, 38. 

Mountains as condensers, 71. 

Mouse, Aryan names for, 140. 

Miiller, Max, 91. 

Muru, 79, 81. 

Musk-sheep, 37, 39, 40, 42, 48, 

Mussulman civilization, 189. 

Myrtle, 29. 


Index. 


-NATuRAL selection could not wnaided 
have originated mankind, 307. 

Necklaces of Cave-men, 46. 

Necrolemur, 25. 

Neolithic men identical with Iberians, 
52. 

Neptune, discovery of, 364. 

New chemistry, 364. 

New England scenery due to glaciers, 


63. 

New Zealand, 348. 

Newgate prison, 228. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 192, 338, 368. 

Nice, dialect of, 158. 

Nineveh, winged bulls of, 173. 

Norsemen thought it shameful to die 
in one’s bed, 225. 

North America formerly joined to 
Europe, 23, 28, 41, 148. 

North and south poles, 64. 

Norway, 34, 41. 


Oaks, 14, 24, 29, 34. 

Object and eject, 328-336. 

Object, social, 330. 

Ocean-beds permanent, 20. 

Ocean currents, 63-65. 

Old Aryan language, reconstruction 
of, 122, 152. 

Old Stone age, 42-49. 

Opossum, 29. 

Orang-outang, infancy of, 313. 

Orbit of the earth, 58. 

Orchards of Neolithic Switzerland, 
51. 

Oriel window, 131. 

Origins, present age wrapped in the 

. study of, 284. 

Ormuzd, 78. 

Orthodoxies, decomposition of, 269. 

Oscan language, 97. 

Oscillations of earth’s crust, 20. 

Ossetian language, 94. 

Owen, R., 344, 364. 

Ox, 35, 50. 

Oxus, 81. 


Paciric Ocean, 20. 
Paleolithic age, 42-49. 
Paley on Homeric poems, 270. 
Palfrey, 137. 

Pali, 94. 

Palmetto, 29. 

Palms, 14, 24, 34. 
Pandanus, 24. 

Panther, 35. 

Parker, Theodore, 227, 270. 
Paroquet, 29. 

Parsis of Bombay, 80, 94. 
Peach and almond, 357. 
Pears, 51. 

Peas, 51. 


377 


Pecunia and pecus, 135. 

Pelican, 29. 

Pen and feather, 118. 

Pepin, 206. 

Perfume of flowers, 367. 

Perihelion, 58. 

Permian period, 11, 70. 

Perpetual snow, 61. 

Persecution, 211-267, 286, 318. 

Persian Gulf, 33. 

Persian language, 94; full of Arabic 
words, 112. 

Persians and Hindus, 83-85. 

Peter the Hermit, 192. 

Pferd, strange history of, 137. 

Pheasant, 29. 

Philadelphia, 39. 

Philip II. burns heretics to celebrate 
his nuptials, 225. 

Philology a historical science, 125, 

Piano, learning to play the, 308. 

Pigs, 35, 50. 

Pigeons, 356. 

Pike, 46. 

Pines, 14, 22, 24. 

Plasticity of infancy, 313. 

Pleistocene period, 37-49. 

Pliocene period, 33-36. 

Plums, 51. 

Plutarch, 193. 

Ro v9: 

Polish language, 98. 

Polished stone tools, 50-53, 

Political economy, 195. 

Poplar, 29, 34. 

peels antiquity of man in, 35, 40, 


Portuguese language, 97. 

Positivism, 289. 

Pottery, 43, 45. 

Prakrit, 94. 

Precession of equinoxes, 59. 

Priesthood, need of, in early ages of 

* Christianity, 261. 

Priestley, Joseph, 275, 340. 

Primary period, 9, 11. 

Primates, 25, 

Primitive society, ferocity of, 223- 
225. 

Progressiveness, human, 306-320. 

Pronunciation, differences of, 114. 

Protective tarifis, 195. 

Protestantism, its full meaning, 265, 
288, 293. 

Provengal language, 97. 

Pumpelly, R., 72. 

Punjab, 82. 

Puppets, a world of, 282, 

Puritans, 266. 

Pushtu language, 94. 


QUARTZITE, 43, 


378 


Rappit, 37, 49. 

Recent period, 49. 

Reindeer, 37, 39, 42, 45, 46, 49, 66. 

Religions, wherein they agree and 
differ, 296; essential truths of, 299. 

Renan, E., alluded to, 212. 

Representativeness, 221. 

Reptiles, 12. ; 

Rhine, 41. 

Rhinoceros, 29, 35, 37, 39; big-nosed, 
40, 42, 57 ; woolly, 37, 45, 49. 

Ribeiro’s discovery of Pliocene man in 
Portugal, 35. 

Rigidity of mind, 236. 

River-drift men, 39. 42-44, 75. 

Rocky Mountains, 19, 39. 

Rodents, 26. 

Roman Empire, 199. 

Roman jurisprudence, 256. 

Romanic languages, 97 ; how they grew 
from Latin, 157. 

Rome, significance of its conquests, 
256 


Rubinstein, A., 26, 309. 

Rudimentary organs, 353. 

Rumansch language, 97. 

Rupee of Bengal, 135. 

Russia, 33, 51. 

Russian ecclesiastical services con- 
ducted in Old Bulgarian language, 
80. 


SasBreE-toothed lion, 30, 35, 39. 

Salmon, 46. 

Samoyedic race, 166. 

Sandalwood, 29. 

Sandwich, 129. 

Sanskrit, 85, 96. 

Saporta, Count, 24. 

Sapta Sindhavas, 82. 

Saracens, 263. 

Sarasvati, 82. 

Savages, their want of forethought, 
218 ; their rigidity of mind, 237. 

Scandinavia, 21, 23, 38, 51; languages 
of, 98. 

Scepticism, its effect in diminishing 
persecution, 216. 

Scherer, E., 211. 

Schism of Zoroastrians, 83. 

Schlegel, F., 90. 

Schleicher, A., 123. 

“ School ”’ of Spencerians, 181. 

Schurz, C., 294. 

Scot and scot-free, 135. 

Scotch divines of seventeenth con- 
tury, 216. 

Scotland, 23, 28, 34, 38. 

Scottish scenery due to glaciers, 68. 

Sea, Aryan names for, 143. 

Da between Europe and Asia, 33, 


Index. 


Seal, 46. 

Secondary period, 9, 12. 

Sedimentary rocks, 18. 

Selection of variations, 356. 

Semi-human man, 31. 

Semitic languages, 153, 162. 

Semnopithecus, 31. 

Serbian language, 98. 

Servetus, Michael, 299. 

Seville, 245. 

Sexual selection, 366. ° 

Shakespeare, 179, 192, 232. 

Sheep and the Horses, fable of, 124, 

Shetlands, 34, 41. 

Siberia, 33, 72, 166. 

Silures, 53. 

Silurian period, 11, 21, 70. 

Simultaneous discoveries, 363. 

Six in Hebrew and Sanskrit, 151. 

Skin-scraper, 43. 

Slavs, 54, 93. 

Slykick force, 335. 

Snow, difficulty of melting, 61, 71. 

Social object, 330. 

Sociology and history, 197-200. 

Sogdiana, 81, 84. 

Solids, liquids, and gases, 327. 

Soul, conscious existence of, after 
death, 291, 337. 

South Georgia, 72. 

South Shetland, 72. 

Southern pole colder than northern, 
64 


Spain, 22; ruinous effects of expul- 
sion of Moriscoes, 245. 

Spanish language, 97. 

Spectrum analysis, 364. 

Speech no sure index of race, 101. 

Spencer, Herbert, on nature of social 
science, 183; on the influence of 
great men, 183-198 ; on ontology, 
283; immensity of his work, 295; 
on mind and matter, 335. 

Spitzbergen, 23, 24, 34, 72. 

Spontaneous variations, 175. 

Sportsmen, 229. 

Squirrel, 29. 

Status and contract, 257. 

Stephanus of Byzantium, 91. 

Stone age, Old, 42-49; New, 50-53. 

Stone hold of Newgate, 228. 

Stone tools of Cave-men, 46. 

Stubbs, W., 194. 

Submergence in Eocene period, 23 ; in 
Miocene, 28. 

Sugdha, 78, 81. 

Peele why warmer than winter, 


Survivals, doctrine of, 147. 
Switzerland, 22, 28, 51. 
Swords no longer worn, 229. 
Symbols of faith, 260. 


Index. 


ee language, rapid changes in, 
73. 


Tapir, 29, 35, 351. 

Target, distribution of shots at, 178. 
Tartar and Tatar, 167. 

Tataric languages, 100, 166. 

Tears and grief, 279. 

Telegraph, 364. 

Tennyson, A., quoted, 247. 

Tertiary period, 9, 10, 12, 14, 36, 69. 
Tertullian, 260. 

eet character of English speech, 


Teutons, 54, 97. - 

Thames, 37, 41. 

Theological renaissance, 285. 

Thessaly, 229. 

vlpaoge Sir W., on age of the earth, 

Thumb, Tom, 176. 

Thun, 130. 

Timbuctoo and Hamburg, 187. 

Time, geologic, 14, 16. 

Timur, 167, 170. 

Torture, 226. 

Town, Aryan names for, 129. 

Town-meetings, 194 

' Trade-winds, how caused, 63. 

Trajan, 206 

Tree-ferns, 14. 

Triassic period, 12, 22, 69. 

py stage of social organization, 239, 
8 

Trinity, 260, 299. 

Trollope, A., 229. 

Trout, 46. 

Tungusians, 167. 

Turanians, 86, 100. 

Turkish language, 100, 166. 

Turkish race, 167. 

Turtle, mental life of, 309. 

Tutelar deities, 251. 

Tylor, E. B., 147. 


Tyne, 41. 


UFitas, 198, 261. 

Umbrian language, 97. 

Uncivilized tribes, change their speech 
quickly, 172. 

Undulatory theory of light, 364. 

Ungulata, 26. 

Unitarians, 270. 

Unity, religious, 246, 286, 289-293. 

Unknowable, 302. 

Upheavals, 19. 

Ur of the Chaldees, 52. 

Ural Mountains, 33. 

Urus, 47, 49. 

Variations in intelligence, 314. 

Veda, 79. 

Velocities of molecules, 326. 


379 


Vendidad, 78, 82, 84. 
Veredus, "the Low-Latin post-horse, 


Verification, 290. 

Viking, meaning of the word, 129. 

Village, Aryan names for, 129. 

yes of Greenland in Miocene age, 29, 
74. 

Virgin armed with knives, 226. 

Virgin, worship of, 262. 

Visceral movements organized before 
birth, 310. 

Volcanic heat, action of, on oldest 
rocks, 11; islands, 344. 

Volcanoes in Scotland and Wales, 28, 
34 


Voltaire, 192. 
Vowel-change in Aryan speech, 121. 


WALES, 28. 

Wall, Aryan names for, 130 

Wallace, A.R., 20, 61, 72, "8, 313, 350, 
362. 

Wallachian language, 97. 

Walnut, 14 

Warfare, diminution of, 208, 212, 228- 
231, 319. 

Watt, James, 205-207, 341. 

Weapons, carrying of, forbidden by 
law, 229. 

Weasel, 29. 

Wedgwood, Hensleigh, 341. 

Wedgwood, Josiah, 341. 

Welsh language, 96. 

Whale, 46. 

Wheat, 51. 

Whitney, J. D., 36. 

Whitney, W. by 91, 144. 

William the Conqueror, 8. 

Willows, 24, 34. 

Windermere, 143. 

Window, Aryan names for, 132. 

Witanagemot, 196. 

Wolf, 35, 37, 49. 

Wright, C., 334. 

Wundt, W., 337. 


XimeNeEs, Cardinal, his bonfire of 
books alluded to, "165. 


YAkutTsk, summer temperature of, 72. 
Yellow race in Asia, 169-171. 
Yew-trees, 24. 

You. my conception of, 329. 
Yule-tide, 262. 


ZARATHUSTRA, 81. 

Zend language, 85, 94, 96. 
Zendavesta, 78, 80, 82. 
Zoroaster, 81. 





A List of the Works 
of Zlohn Fiske. 





THE WRITINGS OF 
JOHN FISKE. 


THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 


With some Account of Ancient America and the Span- 
ish Conquest. Wath a steel portrait of Mr. Fiske, 
reproductions of many old maps, several modern 

maps, facsimiles, and other illustrations. 2 vols. 
crown 8V0, $4.00. 

This work forms the beginning of Mr. Fiske’s history of 

America. It is, perhaps, the most important single portion 

yet completed by him, and gives the results of vast research. 


THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


With Plans of Battles, and a new Steel Portrait of 
Washington, engraved by Willcox from a miniature 
never before reproduced. 2 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, 


$4.00. 

The reader may turn to these volumes with full assurance 
sf faith for a fresh rehearsal of the old facts, which no time 
can stale, and for new views of those old facts, according to 
the larger framework of ideas in which they can now be set 
by the master of a captivating style and an expert in histori- 
cal philosophy. — Vew York Evening Post. 

The freshness and vivid interest of the narrative and the 
comprehensive generalization which springs naturally from 
the author’s plan of a large work on American history, of 
which the two volumes now published are no more than a 
third or a fourth part, make it a book of new and permanent 
interest. — Springfield Republican. 


CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED 
SLACEES 


Considered with some Reference to its Origins. Wath 
Questions on the Text by Frank A. Hill, and Biblio- 
graphical Notes by Mr. Fiske. r2mo, $1.00, net. 


If this admirable volume (Fiske’s “Civil Government ”’) can 
be fairly taught to our rising generation, the future, we he- 
lieve, will show that Mr. Fiske has never done more use- 
ful work than in its preparation. — Zhe Congregationare 
(Boston). 


THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF AMER1- 
CAN HISTORY.” 1783-1720. 
With Map, Notes, etc. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 


The author combines in an unusual degree the impartiality 
of the trained scholar with the fervor of the interested nar- 
rator. ... The volume should be in every library in the 
land. — The Congregationalist (Boston), 

An admirable book. ... Mr. Fiske has a great talent for 
making history interesting to the general reader. — Vew York 
Times. 


THE «BEGINNINGS: OF, NEW SBN G= 
LAN Ds 


Or, the Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil ana 
keeligious Liberty. Crown Svo, $2.00. 


It deals with the early colonial history of New England in 
the entertaining and vivid style which has marked all of Mr. 
Fiske’s writings on Araerican history, and it is distinguished, 
like them, by its aggressive patriotism and its justice to all 
parties in controversy. ... The whole book is novel and 
fresh in treatment, philosophical and wise, and will not be laid 
down till one has read the last page, and remains impatient 
for what is still to come. — Boston Post. 


THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 


ln Riverside Library for Young Peopla With Maps. 
ZOmo, 75 cents. 


John Fiske’s “ War of Independence” is a miracle... . 
A book brilliant and effective beyond measure. ... Itis a 
statement that every child can comprehend, but that only a 
man of consummate genius could have written. — Mrs. CARO- 
LINE H. DALL, zx the Springfield Republican. 


The story of the Revolution, as Mr. Fiske tells it, is one of 
surpassing interest. His treatment is a marvel of clearness 
and comprehensiveness; discarding non-essential details, he 
selects with a fine historic instinct the main currents of history, 
traces them with the utmost precision, and tells the whole 
story in a masterly fashion. His little volume will be a text- 
book for older quite as much as for young readers. — Chris- 
tian Union (New York). 


OUTLINES OF COSMIC PHILOSOFPEY 


Based on the Doctrine of Evolution, with Criticisms on 
the Positive Philosophy. In two volumes. Svo, $6.06 


“You must allow me to thank you for the very great inter- 
est with which I have at last slowly read the whole of your 


% 


work. . . . I never in my life read so iucid an expositor (and 
therefore thinker) as you are; and I think that I understand 
nearly the whole, though perhaps less clearly about cosmic 
theism and causation than other parts. It is hopeless to at- 
tempt out of so much to specify what has interested me most, 
and probably you would not care to hear. It pleased me to 
find that here and there I had arrived, from my own crude 
thoughts, at some of the same conclusions with you, though I 
could seldom or never have given my reasons for such con- 
clusions.” — CHARLES DARWIN. 


This work of Mr. Fiske’s may be not unfairly designated 
the most important contribution yet made by America to 
philosophical literature. -— Zhe Academy (London). 


DARWINISM, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 


12710, $2.00. 


If ever there was a spirit thoroughly invigorated by the 
“joy of right understanding ”’ it is that of the author of these 
pieces. Even the reader catches something of his intellec- 
tual buoyancy, and is thus carried almost lightly through dis- 
cussions which would be hard and dry in the hands of a less 
animated writer. . . . No less confident and serene than his 
acceptance of the utmost logical results of recent scientific 
discovery is Mr. Fiske’s assurance that the foundations of 
Spiritual truths, so called, cannot possibly be shaken thereby. 
— The Atlantic Monthly (Boston). — 


THE UNSEEN WORED, 


And Other Essays. 12mo0, $2.00. 


To each study the writer seems to have brought, besides 
an excellent quality of discriminating judgment, full and fresh 
special knowledge, that enables him to supply much informa- 
tion on the subject, whatever it may be, that is not to be found 
in the volume he is noticing. To the knowledge, analytical 
power, and faculty of clear statement, that appear in all these 
papers, Mr. Fiske adds a just independence of thought that 
conciliates respectful consideration of his views, even when 
they are most at variance with the commonly accepted ones. 
— Boston Advertiser. 


EACURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST, 


I2M0, $2.00. 


Among our thoughtful essayists there are none more bril- 
liant than Mr. John Fiske. His pure style suits his clear 
thought. He does not write unless he has something to say; 
and when he does write he shows not only that he has thor- 
oughly acquainted himself with the subject but that he has 


to a rare degree the art of so massing his matter as te bring out 
the true value of the leading points in artistic relief. It is 
this perspective which makes his work such agreeable read- 
ing even on abstruse subjects, and has enabled him to play 
the same part in popularizing Spencer in this country that 
Littré performed for Comte in France, and Dumont for Ben- 
tham in England. The same qualities appear to good ad- 
vantage in his new volume, which contains his later essays on 
his favorite subject of evolution. . . . They are well worth 
reperusal. — Zhe ation (New York). 


MYTHS AND MYTH-MAKERS. 


Old Tales and Superstitions interpreted by Compara- 
tive Mythology. 20, $2.00. 


Mr. Fiske has given us a book which is at once sensible and 
attractive, on a subject about which much is written that is 
crotchety or tedious. — W. R. S. RALSTON, in Atheneum 
(London). 

A perusal of this thorough work cannot be too strongly 
recommended to all who are interested in comparative my- 
thology. — Revue Critique (Paris). 


THE DESTINY. OF shina: 

Viewed in the Light of his Origin. r16mo, gilt top, $1.00. 

Mr. Fiske has given us in his “ Destiny of Man” a most 
attractive condensation of his views as expressed in his va- 
rious other works. One is charmed by the directness and 
clearness of his style, his simple and pure English, and his 
evident knowledge of his subject. . . . Of one thing we may be 
sure, that none are leading us more surely or rapidly to the 
full truth than men like the author of this little book, who 
reverently study the works of God for the lessons which he 
would teach his children. — Christian Union (New York). 


(MeN D kbs dew (Oo LE1Oi BF 


AsAffected by Modern Knowledge. 16mo, gilt top, $1.00 


The charms of John Fiske’s style are patent. The secrets 
of its fluency, clearness, and beauty are secrets which many 
a maker of literary stuffs has attempted to unravel, in order 
to weave like cloth-of-gold. . . . A model for authors and a 
delight to readers. — 7he Critic (New York). 


¥* For sale by all Booksellers. Sent by mail, postpaid, on 
vecetpt of price by the Publishers, 


HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
4 Park Street, Boston; zr East 17th Street, New Vork. 











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